Sole Survivor.
by Katana Rae
Summary: Bree(X6-544) was the only member of X6 to leave Manticore... Now she's in Seattle. But she's got big problems. Can even an X5 family reunion save her?
1. 1

Untitled Normal Page

Title: Sole Survivor.

Authors: Katana ([rose_tat@hotmail.com][1]) and Rae ([gabby04@hotmail.com][2])

Disclaimer: We only own the ones we made up. (Duh.) We're just borrowing the rest, we'll put them back, we promise.

Rating: Pg-15? Bad words... some sexual references.

Spoilers: Up to and including "Pollo Loco." i.e. Ben's dead, sorry peeps.

Summery: Bree(X6-544) was the only member of X6 to leave Manticore, she was the only one that wanted to... Now she's in Seattle. But she's got big problems. Can Max keep her newly found baby sister from returning to science experiment status?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Bree stood on the corner, watching the group which slowly made their way along the side of the street, the guy kicking things as he stumbled along, freshly coming from the crash.

//A few too many drinks for the guy,// Bree thought, studying them. There were two other girls, both girls had dark curly hair. But the shorter one had shorter hair, and was probably a size four as opposed to her friend's size three.

Bree looked down at herself, dirty and ragged blonde hair falling below her shoulders, tangled, and her body hidden beneath a considerably large and dirty tee shirt and jeans that once fit right, but now h ung loosely on her thin body. She was probably down to a size two now, due to lack of food.

She thought back four weeks, to when she was squatting in an abandoned office building with a few others. She hadn't been there when the others had gotten themselves evicted, and hadn't been able to reclaim any of her possessions.

What she was wearing was what she owned under her name. She stole bits of food, here and there. What was left in some dumpsters usually, and if she was lucky food from the market when security patrol was down. 

Bree vaguely remembered the face of the girl to the left of the guy. She struggled to remember where from. It clicked suddenly. The posters that had been all over the market a week ago had the girl's face on them. It satisfied her c uriosity, but somewhere in her mind she remembered her from a different place.

The male split away from the others, going to cross the road while the girls were deep into a conversation and not watching. Bree's stomach growled.

He stepped in to the middle of the road when out of the darkness came the glow of two headlights. Her eyes flew back to the girls, still in conversation. Bree urged him to notice, but the fool was too damn drunk. He stumbled and fell to his knees, letting out a small oomph Bree c ould hear from her position. The girls must have finally noticed his absence because they finally looked up to him, but only the familiar girl noticed the car.

Bree looked at the speeding car, whose driver didn't seem to see the guy in the middle of the road. The girls stood frozen for a second, in fear, then the one began to move.

But Bree was already flying across the pavement, pushing her legs to the limit she could with no food. And even so she was flying across the street, a result of her revved up genes from Manticore.

She shivered and pushed the guy out of the way simultaneously, but however quickly she'd moved Bree still ended up flying over the hood of the oncoming car.

She hit the pavement with a thud and drowsily yearned for food, when her seizures began and she passed out.

Max saw everything. The girl practically flying across the street, pushing Sketchy out of the way then getting hit herself. Original Cindy ran to Sketchy, making sure he was okay while Max ran towards the girl.

"Hey man, did I just get hit by a truck or something?" Sketchy asked Cindy.

"No you fool, you got hit by a girl."

"A.. What?" Sketchy asked, sitting up.

"A girl, who just pushed your drunken ass outta the way of a car, an'got hit herself." Cindy smacked him across the face.

"Hey, what was that for?" Sketchy felt his face.

"To sober you up, this is why I don't do guys." Cindy sighed, walking across the road to Max and the girl.

Original Cindy let out a breath when she saw the girl, laying on the pavement convulsing. "Max is she a'ight?"

"I dunno." Max sighed, folding up her jacket and sticking it under the girl's head to save it from cracking against the pavement any longer.

Cindy knelt down beside Max and looked in to the girl's eyes, which were open. She began to mouth something.

Bree must have only blacked out for a few seconds because she woke in the same spot with the two girls leaning over her, still convulsing. "I... I'm okay."

"Girl, you just got hit by a car," one said, "And you think you're okay? We gotta get you to a hospital..."

"N..no." Bree stuttered, "I'm fine, I'll be okay." The seizures began to slow and her stomach growled. She was so damn hungry.

"Max, don't you think we should get her to a hospital?" the shorter girl asked.

Max. Bree thought. Max. And the face. Somewhere in her mind her memory tried to work at it.

"I.. I dunno." Max said doubtfully, staring at Bree, who began to feel uncomfortable.

"I'll be fine." Bree said, the seizures letting up, she began to sit up, her tangled hair even more dirty and tangled than before.

A new rip in her shirt and a hole in the knee of her jeans let in the cool night air, she hugged her arms to herself, trying not to look directly at Max, instead she looked at the guy who she'd saved, "You alright?" she asked.

"I'm good, thanks to you, thank you, a lot, I think I had a little too much to drink."

"This is Sketchy by the way, and original Cindy, and I'm Max, by the way." Max made the intros, standing and helping the girl up.

"Yeah, uh, I'm Alaina." Bree lied.

Max faltered for a second.

"I should um, get going I think, time to head back to my place and grab some shut eye." Bree said, beginning to walk away, "Uh, nice to meet you all."

"Hey, wait up" Sketchy called, Bree turned, "I mean, maybe we should walk you home to make sure you don't pass out or something."

Original Cindy eyed Max, both of them grinning slightly. Sketchy was once again attempting, and failing, to pick up a girl.

"Uh, no I'm fine, really." Bree faltered, looking at the ground.

Original Cindy spoke up, "Girl, it looks to me like you ain't got no place to go, no offense or nuthin'but you look kinda scrappy. Times are tough and if you got no place to go you can crash with me an' Max here, we don't bite, and we got a shower waiting for ya."

"And uh, it's the least we could do, for saving Sketchy here and all," Max added.

Bree froze for a minute. Her stomach growled, her mind faltered.

"And food." Cindy pointed out, hitting her weak spot. "Looks like you ain't had none in a few weeks."

"I uh.."

"You can hit the road in the a.m. if you want, just stay a night, it's a little late to walk back anyway, thugs and all." Max said, for some reason wanting to know this girl a little better.

"I don't have any money to pay you for anything." she said simply. There, she'd said it.

"Girl, ain't no one who gots the cash 'cept Max's suga' daddy over here."

"He ain't my suga' daddy." Max spoke up.

"Uh huh," Cindy raised her brows. Cindy walked over to Bree, grabbed her arm and started walking her back the other way. "You come home with us for a night, we getcha all cleaned and ready to go, and then we bringin'ya in to see Normal."

"Normal?"

"Our boss," Sketchy put in, "Jam Pony Messenger Services." He gave an extremely fake smile.

Bree thought for a moment, "I'll be gone in the morning, up early, I don't sleep much and I'm quiet, I don't need to eat anything but uh, some milk would be great." she added, thinking of her seizures.

"We got alotta milk, now lets get goin' Original Cindy's dead tired."

They'd dropped off Sketchy five minutes before they'd arrived at Max and Cindy's apartment.

Bree followed them up the stairs grimacing slightly at her knee, which she was sure was scratched deep under her jeans.

The girls'apartment was fairly well furnished for a squatter's building, better than Bree'd ever gotten. A small pang of jealousy fired up inside her until she drowned it with thank-yous that she'd been able to escape Manticore at all.

"Alaina, you can scrub yourself up in the washroom over here." Cindy walked down the short hall and pointed. Bree wasn't paying attention, forgetting the alias she'd given. "Alaina?" Cindy asked, then repeated until Bree finally snapped out of it.

"Yeah, sorry." she said, following Cindy in to the w ashroom. She closed the door behind her, glancing in the small cracked mirror that hung crookedly over the sink. Her face was filthy, as were her clothes. Small scratches littered her cheeks, from when she'd gotten in few fights on the street last week. Stripping down to her underwear and bra Bree studied her knee, which was pretty scratched, dripping blood down her leg. She touched it, grimacing at the deep wound. She'd probably need stitches for it or something. However, her clothes were scrap. The blood had stained the right leg of her jeans and her shirt had so many holes in it she may as well have not been wearing one.

Someone knocked on the door, "You decent?" Max's voice came through the door.

"Uh, one sec," Bree slid her shirt back on. Max was just another girl. No big deal. The shirt hung almost to her knees anyway, longer than some of the skirts she'd seen people in. "Come on in." Bree spoke up, the door opened.

"Hey." Max smiled, "Uh, here's some clothes, I don't really wear them and uh, you could pro'lly use 'em better than me." she handed them to Bree, "A towel, to dry off and you can use whatever else you need in the bathroom."

"Uh, thanks." Bree said, smiling. It was the nicest thing anyone had done for her in quite awhile.

"No problem, Cindy's gettin'some food made up, we're starved and you're welcome to join."

Bree smiled, feeling somewhat sorry she had nothing to pay them back with.

The door closed behind Max and Bree sighed, stripping and taking to the shower.

She ran a brush through her now clean hair, enjoying the fact that it finally looked nice, even if it were only for a day. She dressed into the clothes Max had given her: new jeans and a red tank top. She also put on the zip-up black pullover, leaving it unzipped.

Cleaning up any stray drops of water and stepping from the bathroom Bree felt refreshed, like she was starting over. The smell of cooking food almost overwhelmed her stomach as she walked in to the kitchen. There were lots of leftovers, eggs and vegetables, a carton of milk. To her it was a feast. Max and Cindy had already begun eating out of plastic tupperware containers. They looked up as she came into the kitchen.

"Well, someone cleans up good." Cindy commented. Bree couldn't help but smile.

"Hope yer hungry 'Laina, Max here takes all Logan's leftovers, and the guy ain't a half bad cook." Cindy continued. Max shoved out a chair with her foot.

"Come. Sit. Feast." Max smiled.

And Bree smiled.

She'd gorged herself, stuffing herself and not caring for once what the two girls thought. Her stomach enjoyed. She'd had five glasses of milk, hoping it would help the seizures lay off a bit. Now she lay on the couch, almost asleep but not quite. She listened to Max and Cindy talking together in the kitchen. Whispering. About her.

"Did you see the girl eat?" Cindy commented.

"Yeah, I'm guessing she hadn't eaten in awhile, I mean she's got my frame but her skin was almost hanging 'cause lack of food." Max commented.

"Maybe we should try and convince her to stay here, We could hang it, she could get a gig at Jam Pony, I hear Normal's lookin'for a new face."

"I don't know if we could do anything to convince her, it was hard enough to get her to stay the night, and with that, the girl's up and gone by six I'm sure."

"How do you know that?"

"Just a feeling."

"Well then," Cindy paused, "What are we supposed to do, you know damn well the girl ain't got a place to go, you can see it in her eyes."

"I dunno," Max said.

A dish clattered in the sink.

"Oops," Max said.

"So you gonna see Logan tomorrow morning?"

"Maybe."

"Huh, I gotta get some sleep, unlike some people."

"I sleep."

"Yeah, right."

"I do! What's the time?"

"Two-thirty almost, no way Alaina's gonna be up and out by six."

"We'll see."

"Are all you people this stubborn?"

"Of course, we're soldiers."

"Night Max."

"Night."

Bree froze under the covers. 'We're soldiers'. A casual comment or really a soldier. She thought back to Manticore. The face came then, the recognition. Max, and X5. Bree was an X6, the gr oup after. The only escapee. The only one like herself. A couple years younger than the X5s. No wonder she'd recognized Max's face.

They'd spent hours drilling them at Manticore about the traitors. The runaways. They were probably doing that with her face right now.

Although she longed to stay, and probably could, she knew she should leave Max to her own. Move on and find another life. Another source. Get a job or something. She couldn't stay here.

Bree was up at five-thirty, or so said the kitchen cloc k. She was writing a note, a thank you and a promise of money. She signed it Bree, without thinking. She looked around for a piece of paper, but found none. As it was she was writing on a napkin. What was the difference, it wasn't like she'd ever see them again right.

Bree moved, lithe as a cat towards the front door, descending the stairs and heading out into the early morning, still dark out. She'd gone a few steps when she heard a voice.

"I guess we were both wrong." It said. Max.

//Dammit.// Bree almost swore. "Huh?" She asked, turning around looking at the girl.

"You're half an hour early. So Original Cindy and I were both wrong. Where you headed?"

"I uh, dunno yet."

"Okay. So we couldn't convince you to stay huh?"

"I really shouldn't."

"Why not?"

"You've done a lot already for me, I don't want to be a burden."

"You're not, I think Sketchy likes you."

Bree laughed.

"Serious. We could get you a job, we could all split rent, it doesn't have to be permanent Bree."

Bree froze.

"I read the note already, I came out after you. You were pretty quiet, but I'm a light sleeper, why did you lie?"

"I dunno, I just.. I dunno."

"I like the name, for what it's worth."

"Thanks, I guess."

"I'm headed to a friend's, wanna come?" Max asked on intuition. She knew she probably shouldn't invite a stranger over to Logan's, because of his Eyes Only routine, but something in her felt like.. like she was an older sister, and had to look out for the girl.

"I probably shouldn't."

"He could probably help find you your own place, and he makes good food."

"At five thirty in the morning?"

"He doesn't sleep much, call him a computer nerd."

"I don't know.."

"After we leave there we can head over to Jam Pony, get you settled in."

Bree gave up. "I don't think I'll go to your friend's, but mind if I crash for a few more hours on the couch?"

"Feel free, I'll drop by for you and Cindy before work."

"Okay."

"And, if you want, Bree, you can tear up the note, I'll call you Alaina if it helps you feel any better."

"I think I'll stick with Bree, I'm having some problems with my alias, like answering to it."

"Cool, see you in a few hours then."

"Yeah."

Max waited for Bree to go back upstairs until she hopped on her Ninja and took off down the block, flashing her Jam Pony tag at the security checkpoint. She showed up at Logan's just after six.

"Max." Logan greeted when she came through the door of his apartment.

"Hey, any news?"

"Yeah, actually."

"So what do I have to fight this time, the Russian Mafia... Oh wait, I did that already didn't I?"

"Funny." Logan said sarcastically, wheeling to his computer, "Actually, this is news for you," he paused dramatically. "It seems that just a couple days ago some internal Manticore documents were sold off from an inside source. The source was killed, by the way. Before they could delete them all I downloaded them, searching through for any information. Turns out there 's nothing on the X5s, but there is something on an X6. Seems like one, and one only, escaped a few years back, hasn't been found yet."

"You'd think they'd put transmitters in them, after us."

"They did, but it was surgically removed by a doctor who claims his client was sincerely convinced aliens put it there. The doctor was also killed 'under suspicious circumstances'. Or so say the papers."

"You think he was killed by Manticore soldiers," Max stated.

"That was my first guess, until I also found that Manticore wasn't the only one after this person. Seems like two other government officials were after her as well, for the technology. She's been given the black market price of three million dollars."

"Now that's some money," Max commented, approaching Logan from behind and checking out the screens over his broad shoulders.

"Yeah, well recently the search efforts have been doubled, due to a guy named Frank Victor, an overseas government official. They've even tracked her here to Seattle." He turned to see her eyes focus on a spot on the wall, her jaw clenched, face worried.

"So lemme guess, you want me to find Victor and his men, kick some ass and then find the girl, warn her and get her on her way?" she asked suddenly, taking a step back from him, meeting his gaze.

"Basically yes."

"Picture?"

"Few secs." Logan turned back to the screen and clicked a single button.

"So.. how old is this girl anyway?"

"About seventeen, but she looks about nineteen, twenty."

"Hmm."

"Max are you okay?"

"Yeah, just thinking."

"About?"

"Sketchy got drunk last night, walked in front of a car."

"Is he okay?" Logan asked quickly.

"He wasn't hit, a girl pushed him out of the way, got hit herself, Sketchy's head over heels with this girl now." Max almost rolled her eyes.

"Figures."

"Yeah."

"So where is she staying?"

"With me and Cindy for now, but I don't know for how long. Caught her trying to sneak out at five thirty this morning, I convinced her to grab a few more Z's, until I was done here, then I'd drag her over to Normal and beg on her behalf."

"Oh. Here's your picture." Logan said, holding out the picture to Max.

She took it , staring off for a bit, then finally looked at the picture. The girl was thin, her hair shaved off, but likely a light color. The telltale fuzz on her head told it so. She had blue green eyes and was about the same size and height as Max, maybe a little taller. It was Bree.

"Oh my god." Max said.

"What?"

"This is her."

"Yeah." Logan said, staring at her.

"No, I mean, this is her, this is Bree, the one staying with us."

"Oh..."

"Shit, I mean how much does that suck?" Max commented, setting down the picture on the desk.

"Well, actually it should make your mission a little easier, you've already got half of it done, you just have to send her on her way."

"Funny."

"I'm serious, Max. What if Lydecker trails her to your place, then he just gets both of you back?"

"Logan, I can't just get rid of her, she's a friend, and Original Cindy and I finally convinced her ass to stay here for a bit, if we overhaul to get rid of her, she gonna wonder."

"Why don't you tell her the truth."

Max stared at Logan blankly, as if he were instantly dumb.

"What?"

"Tell her the truth, you don't think she already knows people are after her, come on."

"Well, maybe she doesn't know that three different governments are after her."

"It doesn't matter how many are after her, the point is that there are people after her."

"I still think that you should sit down and talk to her."

"What's to keep her from running away right then, straight in to Lydecker?" Max snapped.

"What if you brought her here?"

Max stopped pacing and looked thoughtful for awhile. "Tonight, we'll stop by. I can't believe this, I should have noticed."

"What do you mean?" Logan asked.

"I mean that she's the one who saved Sketchy by practically flying across the street instead of me, and after that, she even had seizures. Original Cindy and I thought she'd hit her head or something but then they stopped, when she came to our place, she drank five glasses of milk, then she snuck out this morning - she almost got past me she was so quiet, and I wasn't even sleeping."

"There's still no way you could have known." Logan commented, attempting to make her feel better.

"Huh," Max grumped. "I gotta pick up Cindy and Bree, and get our asses to work or Normal's gonna be slaughtering us."

"Okay then, See you guys later right?" Logan turned around in his chair, but Max was already gone.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

_**{So R/R, tell us what you think. Feedback gets us writing (and HTMLing) faster.**_

   [1]: mailto:rose_tat@hotmail.com
   [2]: mailto:gabby04@hotmail.com



	2. 2

Untitled Normal Page

"Hey, hey." Max greeted, opening the door to their place and catching sight of Original Cindy and Bree sitting with a cup of tea.

"Hey Max, Bree was jus'tellin'me 'bout her past, how old ya think the girl is?"

"I don't know." Max said out loud, but her head screamed seventeen.

"Don't the girl look 'bout nineteen or twenty though, she only seventeen. Seventeen and the girl finally ran away from where she's stayin' at 'cause she was tired of it. Says her daddy immediately flipped, sending all sorts after her."

"I can imagine." Max said, almost tonelessly. The two girls looked at her and Max covered with a smile. "Original Cindy, you know Normal's gonna be chasin'our ass if we don't get going soon, and he sure ain't gonna hire no one who comes in late with us."

"Ya, a'ight, lets party."

"Sketchy." Original Cindy called loudly into the other room, "Getch yer ass butt out here, we headin'to work."

"Sketchy's here?" Max asked, eyeing Original Cindy.

The two girls laughed, "Yeah Max, he came over 'bout 6:30, checkin'on our girl."

Max checked her watch, saw it was almost seven.

"Oh, Cindy tells me you got a Ninja 650 Max, I'd love to try it sometime."

"Sure, no prob." Max smiled.

"You two got a death wish." Sketchy spoke up coming from the kitchen. "In fact," he paused, "Bree, you got a death wish just stayin'here with Max, I mean, she gets into all sorts, I think you 'd be safer over my place."

Max rolled her eyes. "Can we get going, remember we still have a morning of beggin' before Normal."

"A'ight." Cindy said, standing up and gathering the cups and tossing them on the counter. Thirty seconds later they were on their way to work.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"You want me to what?" Normal asked, staring at the three of them.

"Hire our girl here." Max stated again, "You been lookin'for a fresh face Normal, admit it." \par \par "A new face so I can fire you idiots."

"Whoa, whoa." Sketchy spoke up, "Normal we -"

"Shh!" Normal said, looking Bree up and down. "You a friend of Max's?" he asked Bree.

Bree nodded and Normal turned to Max.

"Last time I hired a guy you knew, he ran off, what's so different 'bout this girl?"

"That's just it." Cindy pointed out, "Last time, it was a guy, now all us girls, we a lot more dependable than guys."

Normal looked at Bree, "Can you bike fast?"

"What kind of a question is that Normal?" Max asked stupidly.

"Hey, the girl looks like she ain't had nothin'to eat in a week or two, I don't want her dropping on my pay roll."

"I'll be fine, really." Bree finally said.

Normal humph'd, and looked her up one more time. Bree smiled sincerely. "You're on trial for one week, do good and your hired, screw up and your fired, grab a locker where ever, I'm not responsible for anything stolen from it. Max, you get her set up with the equipment and bike, the rest of you scat, get moving! This is a messenger service!"

"A'ight." The group smiled.

Herbal approached, introducing himself in his quick sounding psycho babble, Bree stood shocked for a minute then grinned, "I'm Bree, and thanks." she followed his confusing handshake in a way that seemed easy.

As Max showed her the ups and downs of the biz, Bree took it all in, remembering every word that was said, she also took a few minutes to study a map of Seattle, it's sectors and streets, although she knew them fairly well, it wouldn't hurt to brush up. And plus, it was easy to memorize the streets, it was what she had been trained for at Manticore. Memorizing Geography and routes, plans. And their own barcodes.

In an instant she was back in a Manticore classroom, repeating her barcode over. "Three, three, four, zero, four, nine, six, seven, two, five, four, four." she mumbled quietly. Max turned to look at her.

"What?" Max asked.

"Uh.. N.. Nothing." Bree muttered, turning slightly red.

"Right," Max said. "Okay, that's it, we'll go grab our first delivery from Normal, he's an ass sometimes, ignore it, everyone meets back 'bout twelve for some lunch, feel free to join. If I don't see you then, meet me back here at Four and we'll head off. My friend invited us over for dinner, he wants to meet the famous Bree." Max made up, lying as little as possible. That was the trick, lie as little as possible and you never got too mixed up.

"Famous?" Bree asked, alerted.

"Oh, I told him how you saved Sketchy and all, he's great, you'll like him."

"Oh, okay I guess." Bree shrugged, heading off.

"C-ya." Max called as Original Cindy met up behind her.

"What's up boo, what'd ya wanna say to me?"

Max turned to talk quietly, not noticing Bree'd stopped for a second to tie the shoes she'd borrowed from Max.

Bree bent down, noticing how dirty the floor was but ignoring it, she almost fell over when she heard Original Cindy comment.

"You mean this girl's like you?"

Max hushed her, but Bree was still listening intently. "Not exactly like me, she's more, advanced than my type. Anyway, I'm takin'her to see Logan, 'cause apparently there's some big ass government officials that have her traced to Seattle, Logan wants her to ship out but I dunno."

"Ship out?" Cindy asked, "That girl just found a place to stay and get some food, and he wants her to ship out?"

"I know, I know, it ain't too stylish on his part, but he's worried about her too."

That was all Bree needed to hear, she stood quickly, bumping into someone who fell, dropping some packages, Normal.

"Can't you guys watch where you're going?" Normal asked loudly.

Bree's heart rate picked up, "Sorry." she muttered, looking back at Max and Cindy, who were looking at her, watching her. Bree took off as soon as she met Max's eyes, which told all. She knew everything.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


	3. 3

Untitled Normal Page

//She heard me.// The words raced through Max's mind as she turned to see Bree standing so close. //She must have heard me. Shit, she's gonna freak and skip.// Max watched as Bree basically ran for the door, she grabbed a package off of Normal and took off after her.

"Bree." Max yelled as she started to catch up. Bree pretended not to hear her. "You're an X6, I know you can hear me." Max muttered. There was no point in yelling.

Bree suddenly pulled over and just looked at her. Max caught up and waited for the younger girl to talk.

"When were you going to tell me?" Bree asked harshly.

"Tonight." Max answered simply. "When Eyes Only had worked out how to help."

Bree took a deep breath. "Eyes Only?" she asked tentatively.

"Yeah." Max replied. "Like I said, my friend's a computer nerd. Well he's a computer nerd with connections. I'm not gonna just bail on one of my own Bree. Logan just wants what's safest.

"You told Cindy..."

"I told Cindy that you were like me. You can only deal with so many black helicopters and foreign governments kidnapping your friends to use them as bait before you have to either move on or spill the truth." Max continued. Bree continued to watch her, untrusting so Max decided to just follow Logan's advice and tell her the truth.

"I've got two governments after me, you've got three. Not to long ago a south African group tried to use Cindy to capture me. They wanted me to play Mommy to their own version of project Manticore. Instead she was able to warn me and I turned their own technology against them. Led to Logan having to do amateur neuro-surgery on the spot though. I couldn 't lie to her anymore after that."

"Amateur neuro-surgery?" Bree asked wide-eyed.

"Yeah, it's a long story. One that I'm sure Logan would love to tell you over dinner. So you in?"

Bree nodded slowly. "Guess so."

Max grinned. "Great! Trust me, you'll like Logan. I think he's even starting to rub off on Zack." Max sighed. "I guess we better get working. You're on trial after all. But don't push it too hard or Normal'll expect you to keep it up."

Bree nodded. "Right."

"See you later little sis." Max called out as she took off.

"See you later big sis." Bree whispered back. She began to start her first day of work at Jam Pony for the second time. //Maybe.// She told herself. //Just maybe.//

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The rest of the day it was almost as if she were in a fog. Wild thoughts tumbling around her head, Three different governments. She had three powerful enemies, and she didn't even know who they were.

Then there was this whole going to meet Eyes Only thing. As far as she could tell, most people, like his contacts, never saw _him_, just his eyes in the meeting rooms.

But if Max trusted him... Her chest ached then, and she got lost in that thought. Max was like her, well, almost like her. She was an escaped X5. Bree was an escaped X6. They were like sisters.

A sister she'd never really had, since the rest of the X6's weren't really like her. They were cruel, unemotional and uncaring. Not for her.

She could still remember the look on Lydecker's face when he'd found out his prized girl wouldn't kill anymore after he'd killed Haley.

Haley. The two girls had been beyond close. They'd shared everything. Until him.

Right in front of her. As if Lydecker thought it shouldn't have mattered. And although it never seemed to phase the rest of the group, she couldn't kill any innocents after that.

Lydecker had freaked, literally. Throwing her in to more classes, attempting to convince her to kill, to drive her to kill.

"It's what you were made to do!"

A voice snapped her from her thoughts. She looked at Normal, who stood there looking a little more than pissed.

"What?" she asked quickly.

"It's what you were hired to do, to deliver packages, not just stand around with them!"

Bree looked at he hands, which were holding a brown package, she turned and walked towards her bike as someone pulled up to it.

"Hey, how's my girl doin'?" Original Cindy's voice asked.

Bree attempted a smile, and, still lost in her thoughts, faltered it.

"Wuz wrong, is Normal gettin' on your back?"

"No," Bree said quickly, looking up, "Jus' thinking." She smiled, for real, this time.

"Hey Boo, Sis." a voice came, it was Max. "This girl's starvin', it's twelve thirty and I gotta go stuff my gut or I gonna keel over an' die." Max grinned.

"Yeah, Right." Cindy replied, looking at her.

"What's this?" Max took a package from Bree's hands, "Is Normal trynna send you on a run?"

Without waiting for a reply, Max turned around, "Normal, we goin' on lunch with your new girl here, you gonna work her to the bone!"

"You've got half an hour!" Normal replied stubbornly, Original Cindy rolled her eyes.

"Uh huh, half an' hour times two." she muttered. Leaving their bikes inside by their lockers they headed out to find some grub.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"So tell me about this Eyes Only guy," Bree said calmly as they sat down at a table. Max had brought a pile of food and was sharing it out between the three of them. Cindy spluttered on her coffee.

"Hey." Max replied as she rubbed Cindy on the back. "I never said you were going to meet _Eyes Only_, I said you were going to meet a computer nerd with contacts, one of which happens to be Eyes Only."

"Oh." Bree replied slightly disappointed.

"What the heck you talkin'about Boo?" Cindy asked.

"Logan." Max replied simply.

"What'd heck's roller boy gotta do with Eyes Only?"

"Just as much as I do." Max replied. "What's the big dealio? So Logan does a bit of hacking for 'mister freedom fighter' and I do a bit of recon, act as a body guard now and again and do the rare assassination. It's all in a day's work for a genetically engineered killin' machine y'know."

Cindy just looked at her wide-eyed. "You know Boo," She said slowly shaking her head. "You talk so much shit it's hard to tell when you not talkin' shit. So why we talking about your rich boyfriend."

"He is _not_ my boyfriend."

"Aha. Then why is dear Zacky jealous?"

"Zack's been recaptured one to many times. He's sick in the head. At least he is if he thinks he's ever goin' t' get more than a sistah's affection out of me."

"Whoa," Bree said cutting into the conversation. "Zack as in..?"

"X5 599? Yeah." Max replied as she shoved some more food into her mouth.

"So you..?" Bree asked sending a questioning look at Cindy.

"Original Cindy knows him enough to know she don't exactly like him. I mean he's cool, he just weirds out aroun'my homegirl. His heads in the right place, he just keeps tryin' t' think with the wrong one."

Max hit Cindy lightly for that. "Hey."

"Oh c'mon Boo. Even Logan sees it. And 'Money-bags Cale' don't like it. He's afraid Zack's goin' t' take you away from him. Speakin' of Logan, why are we speakin' of Logan?"

"'Cause he's invited us over for a culinary miracle."

"Boo's not so sure..."

"Boo wasn't invited. We'll be talkin' shop."

"Riight. Nab the leftovers?"

"Always." Max replied grinning.

"So what are you beautiful ladies talkin' 'bout?" Sketchy asked as he and Herbal approached.

Bree laughed, unused to the flattery, Cindy groaned and Max just shrugged. "Logan and food." Max replied easily. "Y'know, the things that make the world go round."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


	4. 4

The next time Bree got a chance to talk with Max in private was as they were leaving work.

The next time Bree got a chance to talk with Max in private was as they were leaving work. A jumble of questions still in her minds, she didn't wait long to let loose.

"Cindy doesn't know that Logan is Eyes Only?"

Max lost pace for a moment, then looked at Bree, "No, Logan isn't-"

"You said earlier, you fumbled." Bree spoke, staring right at Max who stared somewhat confused but like a deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming car. "If you think X5's have a memory, you should check out the X6 capacity." Bree said, shrugging it off.

"Huh," Max grunted for a second, "No, Original Cindy don't know 'bout Logan, I only tell the girl so much." she finished, leaving the rest unspoken.

She's afraid of letting too many people in on it, afraid that it'll be found out and they'll be used as bait. She knew the feeling, thinking back to a month or so after escaping, when she'd been hanging it with some girls. They 'd all gotten to be really close, and Bree would have told them anything, except about her past. There was only so much the mind could handle before breaking down. Most people didn't want to know anyways, thinking it impossible, or looking at you as if you were a freak.

She knew that look so well. She thought back to a rave party her friends and her had crashed. How she'd finally met a guy, whom she'd immediately clicked with. Just like that, Bree could have planned their whole future. A happy future, where she could live happily ever after. A fairy tale.

She hadn't been planning on getting so drunk that night. It took a lot to shake up a Manticore-Engineered brain, but what she'd drank on an empty stomach had done it to her.

Bree could clearly remember hanging in the back alley with Nic. Hanging, maybe not quite the word for it. It was more like Bree hurli ng the contents of her stomach two days over in to the trash can out back. The rancid smell burning her nose. Nic holding her long blonde hair back, kissing her neck. Until, as if a shiver passed between them, Bree had stopped, as ha Nic.

"What's this?" his voice echoed in the soft night.

Her drunken mind didn't even bother to make it up. "From when I grew up." she held her head over the can.

"They put barcodes on you where you grew up?"

"I grew up in a compound." she'd whispered, feeling him moving the hair aside to get a better look.

"A compound.."

"Manticore, where I was born and brought up to be a soldier, genetically enhanced." Bree had found that as soon as she'd started about her past, she couldn't shut up. She'd kept babbling, barely aware of a nything else around her, until his hand had moved away from her neck. She sensed he'd moved back a step, and the cold air moved between them. She'd shivered, looking up.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

And the look he'd given her. The look that broke her heart in half, and made her pledge she would never, ever, tell another living soul.

"Bree?"

The sharp voice snapped her from another day dream. She shook her head slightly. 

"You okay?" Max asked, concerned.

"I.." her voice cracked for a second, "I'm okay, just thinking." she offered a half smile. Max took it in, but looked back with a knowing look filling her eyes.

"You'll be safe, after this meeting. Logan can set you up to be away from here, so they don't find you and take you back."

Back. She shivered in the warm air. Max didn't seem to notice, or didn't show it anyway.

"We're here." she finally stated, looking up at the building.

Bree looked up at the tall building. A posh looking place for these days. Something only the rich could afford. She looke d up at the windows, lights dotting the occasional one, then stepped in to the building, the noisy outside, replaced with a quiet atmosphere as soon as the doors closed behind them.

"Logan!" Max called as soon as they were inside the door of his apartment after Bling had let them in. Bree stepped in first, guided by Max's hand on the small of her back, as if to prevent her from running.

Bree could feel her muscles tense, and running sounded quite good right now. Although, she knew that in her heart, she didn't want to run. At all.

Max stepped past her, and Bree followed, watching Max strip off her jacket. Bree kept hers on. In another room, her eyes settled on a young guy in a wheelchair, sitting at a computer. Screens surrounded the desk, and haphazard stacks of paper were all around, as if in no specific order. However, the guy, Logan she assumed, moved with ease, knowing where everything he needed was. As if the piles were as good as any filing cabinet.

"Logan, this is Bree." Max said, "Bree, Logan."

Bree nodded her head to Logan's casual 'hey'. He shared a meaningful look with Max, and Max nodded, at the same time speaking up.

"It's okay Logan, she came here on agreement, she ain't gonna run, are ya sis?"

Bree swallowed, met both their gazes and smiled, "I'm tired of running."

The phrase sounded familiar to Max. The same thought had coursed through her mind several times. Part of the reason Max had stayed in Seattle. The other two parts were her friends, and the guy sitting in front of her at this very moment.

"Okay, let's get on with business then, shall we?" Logan asked, turning to stare back at the computer screen. Articles jumped all over the one in front of him, then came up on a separate monitor to the sides. Bree watched this with amazement, watched Logan's fingers fly over the keys, gather the information, then turn back to them.

"There." he said, gesturing towards the articles on his screen, "Are confidential documents concerning you, Bree. Max may have told you that there are three gove rnments looking for you. Two of which are the same that are after Max."

"Lydecker." Max almost spat the word out. She glanced at Bree, who stood at her side, slightly behind a step or so. The girl was focused on the monitors, her irises enlarged, and reading the articles.

"Right. What's special about you, Bree, is that Lydecker seems to have taken every possibly action to find you without arranging a house-to-house search. How you managed to make it this long, I don't know. Any ideas on why he 's so focused on you?" Logan asked, looking at her directly.

Bree thought for a moment, back to her days at Manticore. With a perfect memory she could remember comments here and there, snitches of conversations with other officials. She was his prized one. As if she were his very own daughter he were bragging about. Instead of mentioning these few things, she shook her head no.

Max could hear Bree take a short intake of breath. Could almost feel the suddenness of it. Then she'd shaken her head no. Max couldn't quite get past some of the girl's poker faces yet, but she was almost certain there'd been a flash of recognizance in her eyes. Which meant she knew something she didn't want to share at the moment.

"Okay." Logan continued, "The other thing is the third government, or party rather. Anything I've found on them is very vague, and I can't seem to get any profile out of any of the characters. The leader's name is John MacKenzie. He used to work with a scientist, Dr. Tanaka, until they split off their separate ways."

"Tanaka," Max muttered. Logan watched as her face lit with recognition.

"The doctor that-" Max began.

"Held the conference on gene re-sequencing." Logan finished off.

"Why would he want Bree?"

"I don't know, that's the mystery. I was hoping to find some more information, but I've been getting occasional brownouts that keep interrupting my research."

As if a reply to the word 'brownouts', the lights suddenly were off. The monitors flickered the last bit of life out of them before they went black as well, throwing the room in to a complete blackness.

Bree couldn't help but let out a laugh, Max joined, but Logan sat quietly.

"In case you've forgotten, I am the only one here without enhanced vision..." he began.

"Yeah Logan, where are the candles?" Max asked, stopping her giggling. But even through the dark Bree could see a smile still playing on her lips, as one was on her own.

"Second drawer down on the left hand side of the kitchen counter." he replied, waiting.

Both girls moved towards the kitchen, retrieving the candles, and lighting them with matches that were found with them. Soon the room was thrown in to a somewhat freakish glow of light, forming shadows on everyone's face.

"So, what are we supposed to do about this Logan?" Max asked, now seated beside Bree on the couch across from him.

"Well, I suggest that we get some stuff together, and get Bree out of Seattle as soon as possible. It's not safe here anymore, they've tracked her to Seattle. All they need to do is implement a full search, and she's been found."

"Well, fortunately that hasn't begun yet," Max replied, looking at Bree from the corner of her eye. The girl's face was fighting some heavy emotion, like she was struggling to make a decision.

She spoke, suddenly and loudly, her voice filling the room. "I'm tired of running." she stated, looking back at Logan in the eyes, for only the second time that night.

"I'm afraid there's no real choice, Bree. They're close already. If you don't leave, you could end up back in Manticore."

"Not if I fight them." Bree suggested.

"That's crazy, one girl can't fight an army, or three at that, on her own. They'd have you in a minute."

Max struggled to decide, a fight churning deep within her soul. Help out her sister, her family. She never let them down. Never would, not until it killed her.

"Not if I help." she suggested.

Bree stood in the semi-darkness. "No." she replied, looking at Max, who stood slowly.

"No?" Max questioned.

"I can't do that, I can't get you involved. They could get you hurt. This is my fight."

"You're my family, this is my fight too." Max pointed out.

"It's not like that-" Bree began.

"Hey!" Logan suddenly yelled, interrupting the two girls. They both turned to stare at him.

Waiting for a moment before he continued, he met both gazes, both defiant and stubborn. "First of all, Bree, you can't change Max's mind once it's made, Second of all Max, I don't like the idea, just for the record. Third of all, there's no way in hell that you two can fight three different governments."

Defeat filled through Bree, dread filled Max. Max didn't want her sister to run, but didn't want her to be brought back to Manticore either.

Bree didn't want to run, and didn't want to be brought back to Manticore. What they needed was an army to fight an army. Her mind spun in a world of impossible ideas.

She couldn't picture Original Cindy haulin'ass to kick some, or Sketchy. They needed a strong army. This wasn't supposed to be a suicide mission.

Max could almost feel the ideas taking place in her head, and before she even spoke, Logan spoke up.

"Max, you know he won't do it, there's not even a way of contacting him."

"But all we have to do is contact him, he can contact the others. It's an army against an army. Logan, we could win it, we could take down these people finally, and then I could relax - we could all relax - for a little while. We wouldn't have to constantly keep running."

"There's no way of contacting him. It's suicide. Any way to get his attention, would also attract the attention of Lydecker and his men, as well as the others."

"Then we have to figure out a way to get his attention, and only his." Max put in.

"It's suicide Max, and you know that."

The two bickered, stubbornly, as Bree stood there lost in the conversation. Not understanding what they were talking about, she drifted in to her own thoughts.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


	5. 5

Somewhere else,

Somewhere else, in the midst of his own thoughts, Normal was interrupted by strong banging on the door to his office. He was still at Jam Pony, due to a lack of things to do, and work to be done.

He sat at the old wooden desk, papers strewn in front of him and stared at the door for a moment, wishing they would go away, who ever it was.

He mumbled to himself, thinking about the good old days, when everything was still functioning. When the society was functioning. When there weren't all these damned brownouts.

His eyes caught on the single burning candle in the room, from which light and heat radiated through the room. The knock had caught him off guard.

"We're closed!" he yelled, hoping they'd go away.

The banging came again, a little more fierce this time.

Finally Normal stood up, opening the door quick enough to put out the candle on his desk. Lights shone from outside his office however, from flashlights that were in the hands of four men.

One shone right in to his eyes, and he blinked, trying to get his eyes to focus. A man stood there in a fairly neat appearance, short brown hair and eyeglasses that surrounded just his eyes. He looked tough, although he was thin. Experienced and trained. Ex-Military or Marine, Normal guessed. His eyes fell on the others around him, three men dressed in black garb clothing with guns in their hands.

"What do you want?" he asked stiffly, trying not to let his voice tremor.

The man in front held up a picture, "We got this from a security camera across the street, we're looking for this person, recognize them?" he asked in a crisp voice.

Normal looked at the picture, studying it.

"Of course I recognize her," he said, "She's one of my employees, what'd she do?"

"Not at liberty to discuss that, sir." the man replied. "You know where she's currently residing?"

Normal shrugged, "I don't stalk my employees home, no."

"No idea?"

"No." Normal said, in a tone that was final.

The man before him seemed to sense that he was getting somewhat pissed.

"She'll be in tomorrow, starts at eight," Normal offered. "If she's on time."

The man nodded, dropping the picture. "Expect us then, but don't say anything to her." he ordered. Normal nodded.

And as soon as the men had arrived, the were again gone. Normal went and lit the candle once more. "Knew that girl was trouble..." Normal muttered. "Hangin' around with Max, the girl's gotta be trouble. Damned kids." He said to himself, then settled back in to his chair, soon forgetting about the meetings, and went back to his work.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Logan sat in front of the girls, deciding as the lights came back on.

"We have to try." Max urged. There was no more argument from Bree, who had obviously given up, not wanting to resort to violence.

Logan rolled over to his computer as Max blew out the candles. Bree sat, staring at the wisps of smoke that rose from them. Watching the tendrils dance gracefully in to the air. He took position at the computer as It finished powering up, then he clicked a few times with the mouse, setting something up.

Hope filled Max's heart when she saw he was preparing Eyes Only video footage.

"This is a streaming freedom video bulletin. The cable hack will last exactly 60 seconds. It cannot be traced, it cannot be stopped and it is the only free voice left in the city." He began, then continued. "This is a message that concerns any of you known formerly as X-Fives. Your family is in trouble, and a war is brewing. They are requesting your help. You will know the number to call. It is safe." Logan hit a button and stopped the recording.

Max watched him fiddle with a few more things, editing the clarity and some other things while adding other effects.

"How will they know the number to call?" Bree asked from behind.

Max waited for an answer as well, then Logan turned around, playing the message on the screen to the left of his central one.

The video seemed clear, but it quickly flashed twice during the proceedings. And at the end, Max and Bree both knew the number. They repeated it, then looked questioningly.

"Subliminal Messaging." Logan explained.

"Won't that tip off just anyone?" Bree asked.

"No, not if it's not seen more than five times. The Manticore brains process things as quickly or as slowly as possible. Very efficiently it takes the information apart and gives the full meaning. It's what makes you so good at problem solving." Logan explained, "So only someone with a genetically enhanced brain will see this messaging."

"Smart." Max approved. Bree nodded as well.

"Now all we do is wait." Logan replied, playing the message publicly.

"Great, the hardest part." Bree muttered, taking a seat by the window and staring out in to the night.

Somewhere else, Lydecker swore under his breath, hitting the desk with a fist as he saw the broadcast. Still, he continued to listen, again wondering why this guy was helping his kids.

This had to be about the X6. X6-544. That's all she'd ever been called. The other kids in her group hadn't conceived names for each other as the X5's had. But she had to have a name by now. It didn't matter. As long as he got the girl back before anyone else. The technology that was in her. The stem cells she held, were more capable of anything than he'd ever had. She was his personal success. The one he'd spent most of his time designing. For optimal fighting and thought process. She was able to do anything quicker than anyone else in her group was. Until she'd suddenly stopped. And escaped, he thought bitterly. Staring at the end of the Eyes Only message. His fingers drummed on the table top as he started to think.

She didn't yet know that they were waiting for her at work. There was no way the cavalry could rush in that fast. Unless every single one of them were watching at this very moment and close enough. Only twelve had escaped.

He thought of it. Thirteen of his trained soldiers, his kids, fighting them. Immediately he called in to base, demanding more man power.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


	6. 6

Untitled Normal Page

Zack watched as Lydecker and his men left Jam Pony. Zack had been in Seattle for all of three hours and already he could tell that something big was up. He followed the men for a few miles, jumping from rooftop to rooftop with cat-like ease but then decid ed it would be better to contact Max. He only hoped that he could talk some sense into her this time. He reached the run down building that Max was living in and quickly scaled the side of it.

He slunk into the window and began scanning the room. The next thing he knew a cup was whizzing through the air near his head. He snatched it out of the air and turned to face his attacker.

"Ever heard of a friggin door Zack?!" Original Cindy yelled as she looked him in the eye. "Ya scared the crap outta me!"

Zack just shrugged and looked her in the eye. "Where is she?"

"Where d'ya think?" Cindy replied tossing Zack the phone. "Ya know the number or do ya need a mere mortal to dial for ya?"

Zack let out a low growl and began to quickly dial without saying another word. His eyes scanned the room and landed on the television as he waited for the phone to be picked up. That was when he saw the Eyes Only bulletin. "Shit." He muttered as it came to an end. Just then Max answered Logan's phone.

"You've reached the number you've dialed." She said in an overly cheery voice.

"What the _hell_ have you done now Maxie?!" Zack demanded. "No, don't answer that. Stay put. I'm on my way. And Cale's gonna have some explaining to do when I get there." With that Zack slammed down the phone.

Cindy watched him calmly the entire time. "Never new an X6 could cause such a reaction." She muttered.

"A what?" Zack asked advancing on her.

Cindy just shrugged. "Relax Zack. I'm guessin' Max an' Bree ain't gonna be coming home tonight. Just give me a sec and I'll pack some stuff for them."

Zack looked at her carefully. After a minute he made a decision. "Pack for yourself too. Pack light, but like your not coming back. And be quick."

Cindy nodded. "Sir, yes sir." She replied sarcastically and with a mock salute, but she did as he asked.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Zane, it's late. You can finish working on the bike later." Rebecca Morris called to her boyfriend of one and a half months.

"She's not just a bike." Zane replied as he rubbed the back of his neck sending a grease stain over his barcode. "Sorry Becky-Bee, but you know she's my one true love."

"Yeah, and then comes your dog and then comes me." Rebecca replied with mock irritation. She lent over and kissed him on the cheek. "Dinner's ready, c'mon."

Zane sighed. "Becks..."

"Please Zane." Rebecca pouted. She flung her red hair over her shoulder and looked at him with her big green eyes.

"Just give me another five. "Zane replied with a sigh. "I'm almost done."

"'Kay." Rebecca replied grinning.

Zane smiled. He'd just finished reattaching his dog's sidecar to the old Harley Davidson when the small television set started showing an Eyes Only bulletin. Ever since the one that had warned him he'd been compromised he'd paid closer attention to Eyes Only. As he watched the bulletin a knot began to tighten in his stomach. Deciding that he couldn't risk calling the number from the house he did the only reasonable thing he could thing of.

"Hey Becky-Boo." He called out as he quickly grabbed his backpack and his helmet. "I think I'm gonna give her a spin before dinner. Don't wait for us."

"Zane..."

"Rebecca," Zane said sighing. "You know I love you." He kissed her in the cheek. He clicked his tongue once and the dog was at his heals. He closed his eyes a s he made his way out of their apartment building. He knew he was likely to never see her again. After all, that was a Seattle number.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Krit laughed as he won yet another hand of poker. His roommates were not impressed. Krit pushed himself to his feet and went to the fridge to grab more beers. The beers were in his hand as he passed the television. But the next thing his mates new the beers were hitting the floor and he was out the door. They never saw it coming and they never knew why.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In all of five minutes, Logan's apartment seemed to have been taken over by an army... of three people. While Logan used the net as much as possible to verify any more information, and keep broadcasting, Max handled the phone and Bree stood around doing almost nothing.

She felt useless, hopeless, and guilty. They shouldn't have sent that message. It meant that she was putting the rest of Max's family in danger. What was the point of trading one for up to twelve X-5's?

It wasn't like she didn't sa y it either, but every time Bree managed to say something, even to mutter something, there was silence, and then suddenly Max would go on a spiel about how a family was supposed to work together, how they were supposed to help each other.

She'd attempted, several times, to explain that, in reality, Max wasn't her sister, she was an X5 and Bree was an X6. But even that excuse sounded too false, so she stopped trying.

When ever she met Logan's gaze, there was a look there of confusion, anxiety and hate. And she knew that the hate part was about her. Because she'd gotten Max in to this. It was clear that the two of them loved each other... They should just stop jumping around the subject.

So, with nothing to do, and no one to fight with, she sat down cradling a glass of milk as the phone rang.

Max grabbed it without a word, answering it the same as two other times, "You've reached the number you have dialed."

She even managed to do it somewhat charismatically, which surprised Bree. This time though, the smile wiped off her face in seconds and Bree tuned in to what the other person was saying on the other line.

"...have you done this time Maxie?" the male voice demanded.

"Zack" Max replied, matter-of-factly. The rest of the time she just listened. When she finally hung up, Bree felt more guilty than ever, and wouldn't meet Max's gaze. The phone didn't ring anymore for awhile.

"How many so far?" Logan asked. Even in the other room, Bree could hear him replaying the Eyes Only message.

"Zane, Krit and Zack." Max replied. "In fact, Zack is on his way over, the rest of them I told to meet here too. Hope you don't mind."

There was silence for a second, and Bree thought that maybe Logan didn't want all the X5's knowing that he was Eyes Only, but it was something else he said. "Zack's coming?"

"Of course," Max replied, almost bitterly and sarcastically, "Big brother wouldn't want to miss out on reaming me out." she sighed.

Logan didn't say anything. But Bree did.

"Is there any way that people could be seeing this and tracing to where all these calls are just suddenly coming from? I mean, isn't that just setting a trap, getting everyone here and then having Lydecker's men or someone swoop in, and hey, they have us all?"

"Impossible," Logan replied, "I got my buddy Sebastian on that one. He's a whiz, he's mixing the signals, and placing as many false phone calls to an old warehouse just outside of Sector Two."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


	7. 7

Untitled Normal Page

"Where are they coming from?" Lydecker demanded, seated in the van, waiting for an update.

"We couldn't trace that sir, because the calls were so short, but fortunately we've got to where they're going to, we're guessing it's their meeting place."

"Good, what's the location?" he asked, a smile filling his face. He would have all his children back home soon. He couldn't wait for X6-544 to return home.

"711 Gossamer Street, Sector two." The man replied beside him.

"Good, get us there, but not too close. We don't want to scare them off before they all get there, do we?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In San Francisco, Jondy was ready to retire as the broadcast came on. Her finger had been ready to flick the switch, and yet the prickling sensation at the back of her neck caused her to pause. Sixty seconds later she knew why.

She thought, briefly, about the Eyes Only Broadcast. She threw off the covers and turned off the TV, already dressed in clothes she could run off in. Call it habit.

Then she made the phone call.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The phone and door went simultaneously. A knock and a ring. Bree looked at Max for a moment, met her gaze and knew that some part in Max didn't want to open the door as much as she wanted to hear the voice of her family. Bree moved to the door without a word as Max answered the phone.

She used the peephole, and saw it was two people. Original Cindy stood in the front, and a guy was behind her. He wasn't saying a word, but Bree could still remember his face, and those eyes, from classes they'd been forced through at Manticore. Pictures of the traitors hanging everywhere.

The guy reached out and knocked again, harder this time, and Bree whipped open the door. Cindy walked in to the room, but Zack stopped after one look at her.

In seconds his thumb and forefinger were wrapped around her neck, not allowing her to breathe.

"Who. Are. You?" he demanded.

Although she tried to respond, Bree couldn't breathe much less talk. Cindy, who was already inside the apartment and out of sight, wasn't aware of this.

Bree brought her leg up, twisting it around his arm and kicked him in the side of the head.

She was released immediately, and fell on the floor, holding her throat that suddenly seemed scratched and dry. Zack regarded her from the same position.

The look in his eyes was now surprised at her skill. Having heard the commotion Cindy came back out in to the hall, and surveyed the scene.

"Bree, I guess you already met Zack," she said dryly, helping the girl to her feet. She left Zack, but Bree held out her hand for him. He ignored it and Bree slowly withdrew.

"Jus' Signore his welcome girl, he gets a little too uptight. Close the door behind you." Cindy directed Zack, then walked with Bree in to the other room.

Bree rubbed her throat quietly, until Cindy looked at her once more to see her doing this. "What'd he do to my girl anyways?" She pried her hands away from her neck.

Cindy frowned at the finger marks on Bree's neck, guilt at having left Bree with Zack quickly showing on her dark eyes. "Damn girl, Original Cindy's sorry she left, I thought he all just pushed ya or something. But then again, I guess he's Zack. You a'ight girl?" she asked Bree, the concern thick in her voice. Zack entered the room, looking pissed and baffled at the same time. Cindy sent him a glare.

"I'm fine." Bree replied, almost surprised her voice still worked. Her eyes followed Zack across the room until he stopped in front of her, at his full height, demanding to know who she was.

"She," a voice said, sounding disappointed, "Is Bree." The voice was Max's.

"Wonderful, and how is she involved in this Max? You know damn well she shouldn't be here. Just ship her off with Cindy, then we can figure this out."

"Not that easy," Cindy replied, Zack's flickered to her, then back to Bree.

"And why's that?"

"This girl here, is the one who's in trouble." She replied easily, squeezing Bree's hand.

This time he turned to Max, instead of addressing her over his shoulder. "You said it was trouble with family." He commented.

"She is family Zack," Max finally snapped, coming further in to the room, "Bree is an X6. They've got her tracked to here in Seattle, and we all know it's only a matter of time now."

"Lydecker you mean."

"Lydecker and more," Max replied.

This caught his attention. "More?"

"More." Max confirmed. And so the explaining began.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tinga entered the family room to see Charlie and Case asleep on the couch. A smile lit her face, and she felt safer than ever before. The television was still on, the control in Charlie's hand. The quiet babble filled the otherwise silent room, giving it a homely atmosphere.

Not having the heart to wake Charlie by prying the control from his hand, she approached the set itself, ready to turn it off when an Eyes Only broadcast came on. She left it for a second, as soon as the first few words of the broadcast were out. Barely waiting for it to finish, she scrawled a note to Charlie and Case, saying that she needed to visit a sick friend, but would be back in a couple of days. Then she ran down the block to a payphone to make the phone call.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Syl listened to the broadcast with a halfhearted interest until it mentioned her family. She sat straight at the bar, her long blonde hair falling across her face. With a quick swipe she threw it out of her face and tuned in to the broadcast. As soon as a number appeared in her head, she raced across the bar to the payphone, placing her call.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Throughout the explaining Max had begun, the phone rung twice and she had to answer. Each time she left the room to grab the phone, Zack's gaze settled on her. It was a hard, but understanding gaze. And Bree had the feeling he was somewhat in awe of her. The sole X6 to escape. But he was still suspicious, as any normal X5 would be. She doubted even Max would have taken her in, had Bree ex plained that she was an X6. If she hadn't have found out from Logan, then Bree would still be wandering the streets, her gourmet food consisting of stuff from a garbage bin.

Max came in to the room after the last phone call. "That was Syl," she mentioned to Zack, who nodded his head.

"That gives us seven people," he commented.

"Eight people," Bree corrected him. He looked at her. "This is my fight." she explained. Finally a look of what seemed almost like approval came over his face. Even if it was for only the briefest of moments.

Those words left a settled silence over the room. Was it possible to win this fight without dying? Bree wasn't so sure anymore.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


	8. 8

Zack looked at her,

Zack looked at her, as if sensing her thoughts, then his face seemed to turn unreadable, but his eyes remained on her.

Bree stared back. His jaw was squared and set, giving the feeling that he was going to ask something, and he wanted a proper answer. He seemed defiant of here, momentarily.

"Zack?" Max asked. He didn't look away. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, Maxie, I just had a question for Bree here, in fact, a couple questions. We shouldn't invite our family in to this mess without having some answers for them when they get here."

Logan raised his brows, then shrugged it off, looking at Max, then Bree, who were seated side by side, Cindy on the other side of Bree.

"So, comes the question that hasn't been answered," Zack began, "Exactly how did you escape, and why are so many people after you? What did you do?"

Bree, who had been fairly focused until then, flinched and retreated in to her head once more. The room around her disappeared as the world in her head came to a sharper focus:

> _She was in barracks, with everyone else in her group. Although most didn't sleep, she'd been quiet and graceful enough to slip past them and hide in the cleaning closet._
> 
> _Bree remembered how a plan had formed in her head, even then, sitting in the closet with the odor of cleaning supplies tickling her nose._
> 
> _She waited there for what seemed like forever, until she heard the familiar noise of someone entering the room._
> 
> _Keys rattled against the metal knob and the door opened inwards in the other room. She was sure that had been enough to wake the others. The others who didn't want to escape. Who swore it made sense here, when really, nothing made sense here._
> 
> _As soon as the Janitor, a tall black man who cleaned all the rooms, opened the cleaning closet she jumped at him, using all her pent up energy against him, intending to knock him out. Only, when it was all over Bree knew she'd gotten carried away, because the only one who was nice to them, ever, was now on the floor. Not breathing._
> 
> _Her plans had almost gone to shit right then. When she'd almost been sick and couldn't go anywhere, but the monitors everyon e carried was currently sending a signal to alert whoever was awake and watching, that there had been a disturbance in the room._
> 
> _The other X6's sat up in their beds at the quiet noise, and looking through the shrouded dark back at them, the young Bree knew they were staring back at her. Ready to pounce._
> 
> _She made her move quickly then, flying out of the closet, the keys grasped in her clammy hands, not understanding in all totality of the trouble she'd gotten herself in to._
> 
> _The first door opened easily, with a swipe of a quick care in the correct slot, and the entry of the pass code she'd listened for over a week to make out._
> 
> _She remembered, entered it, and as soon as she entered in to the room just past that, the door closed behind her, separating her from her family. She kept going._
> 
> _Only, as she attempted the second door, she noticed that it was a heavy metal, impossible for one X6 to break through. And even if she could have, it would have made too much noise. So she waited for the inevitable. The night guards coming to the 'rescue'. The same guards who frequently thought of them only as kids, and didn't know the implications of what Manticore was doing in their gene therapy._
> 
> _As the first one unlocked the door, the girl squeezed in behind the door, making herself what seemed impossibly small in the corner of the darkness. There was only one. But she'd heard footsteps of two._
> 
> _Unfortunately, they weren't that stupid. She rushed in to the hall as soon as the door behind the guard shut and rushed the second guard, who seemed ready and waiting._
> 
> _She hit him almost at full force, throwing them both to the ground. The gun went flying from his hands, and the girl attacked until he was down and out._
> 
> _Then she ran down the hall. Past the anomalies, who's faces were pressed up against the windows. And towards the door to freedom._

> _A voice managed to stop her cold, however. She stopped on the spot, turned around, and focused down the hall on several figures standing in the hall not fifty feet away._
> 
> _"Bree," Lydecker's voice greeted her. Using Haley's nickname for her. How she wanted to slaughter him, just for that._
> 
> _"Where you going?" he asked. She stared back dumbly, her heart beating steadily, but loudly. Then, without another word he shot the fist, which had been at his shoulder, straight forward, and the figures behind him raced forward towards her._
> 
> _She turned, and ran._

Someone was shaking her, she realized, as the world around her came to focus again, leaving the past behind. Her heart was thudding.

"Hey," Max said, "You okay?"

Bree nodded, then looked at Zack. "I suppose I got away much like you guys did." She replied after a beat.

"That's only half the question," Zack replied easily.

"I wouldn't kill anyone," she answered, meeting his gaze again, "He killed my friend and I wouldn't kill for him. He was mad and tried to drive me to it, and he had some doctors do gene therapy on me. When I woke up, I heard him talking to someone about my bases structure. How I had the ability to be bred and pass on my genetics successfully, about how I had none of the faults the X5's had except for the seizures. He went on about half the stuff I didn't understand until they realized I was awake. He put me against my own family. And I still wouldn't kill," she explained. A tear fell silently down her cheek, and she looked away, brushing it and then rising and walking out of the room to find Logan's washroom.

Zack made a grunting sound then, looked at Logan, whom he found was staring at Zack. "Where's your phone?" he asked, "I'm tired of waiting for the phone calls."

Logan pointed at the counter in the kitchen, where the cordless sat, not ringing. Zack walked over to it and picked it up, going in to the guest bedroom down the hall and closing the door.

Logan sat there, alone in the room for the first time that evening. He turned the wheel chair around as Original Cindy walked in to the room.

"How is she?" he asked.

"She's a strong girl, but we all hungry Logan. Max tellin' me this was a dinner meeting, so where's all our dinner?" she gave a smile.

Logan gave a quick smile back, rolling in to the kitchen and pulling out his already prepared food from the fridge.

In the guest room, Zack waited on the phone for Jani to come on the line. While he did so he managed to liste n to a few of the words Max and Bree were saying. Max was telling her she shouldn't worry, and Zack was always uptight, not to take it personally.

He ignored the rest of it from then on. //You should be more careful too, Maxie.// He thought. You're gonna get your ass hauled off to Manticore again otherwise. He finished the thought as a voice came on the other line.

"Hello?" a girl's voice asked.

"Jani." He replied, knowing the importance of that single name. He knew her friends called her Janet, which was who he'd asked for. She knew it was him.

"Zack, what's wrong?" she asked. "You never call me unless there's something wrong, what is it?"

"You didn't see the broadcasts?" Zack asked her.

"No, what broadcasts? Are we in trouble?"

"Not yet," Zack replied.

"What broadcast?"

"It was nothing."

"So what are you calling for, not to take me out to dinner I'm guessing. You never hang around long enough for us to do anything like that."

Her unworried mannerism reminded Zack of Max. "There's some people that need our help" he began.

"Who?"

"A friend of Max's. She's in trouble, and lots of it. She's got a lot of people after her, and they're all pissed off. I've contacted some of the others, they're all coming so far. I still have to call Risha, Kita and Tayrahn though."

"Who's this girl, and why does she have so many people after her?" Jani demanded. "And why is this a problem for our family?"

"The girl, Bree, is an X6. Lydecker's courting Seattle, and he's getting closer. He's already been to where they're working."

"You're back in Seattle?" she asked.

"Aren't I always?" he replied easily.

"Yeah, Yeah, I get the point, what's the addy?"

He rattled off one for her and waited.

"I'll be there tomorrow morning." She replied, hanging up the phone. Zack held on to the receiver for a moment, listening to the dead air, then hung up, and began dialing again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


	9. 9

Untitled Normal Page

"Hey, Tayrahn! Phonecall!" A voice shouted.

Any normal person likely wouldn't have heard Gary, his boss, yell over the bar crowd, but he did.

//Thank you Manticore.// He thought sarcastically. He made his way through the crowded pub, pushing his way easily past people at the bar and grabbed the phone, leaning across the bar so it would reach.

"Yeah?" He answered the phone.

"Tayrahn?" a voice questioned.

"Who else, Zack," he replied, knowing immediately who the voice belonged to.

Tayrahn glanced at the television set, hanging from the corner of the ceiling. An Eyes Only bulletin came on and he rolled his eyes.

"If this is about the bulletin, you can just forget it Zack!" He snapped.

"Tayrahn, we need your help."

"What if I'm busy, Zack? You know I've got a girl, a job and even a kid alright? I can't go rushing out every time our pal Max gets in to trouble."

"It's not Max this time," Zack replied.

"Who is it then?"

"Her friends, Bree-"

Tayrahn interrupted, "You want us all to run and save Max's friends now?"

"It's not just a friend, Tay, it's an X6. Lydecker's got an army on her ass and they're moving closer. Not to mention the other governments who would kill for that technology."

There was silence for a moment. "I don't know if I can hang it Zack. You've got everyone else by the sound of it, how bad can it be? Plus, when are you one to put your ass at risk for someone who's not our family?"

"She is our family," Zack fought back, gripping the phone.

"That's funny, you get that line from Max?" he asked.

"Look," Zack finally said, "If you want to come, meet us here tomorrow night," He rattled off Logan's address. "If not, I don't blame you, but don't expect a whole lot of gratitude from Max or anyone else here." he replied, hanging up the phone.

On the other end Tayrahn slammed the phone down, he stared at it for the briefest of moments before moving in to action again.

Taking orders at the bar

.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Risha's long mane of black braids fell over his bare angular shoulders as he lay stomach down on the white leather couch. His black eyes were half lidded as long gentle fingers traced the tattoo that took up most of his back. Another set of long fingers was re-braiding the braids that had come loose.

"What is the tattoo about?" a sweet female voice asked him. Sara. She was the one stroking his back.

"It's a story picture. You see the dominant one?" He said in a lazy voice. "The one with the head of a lion, the body of a goat and the tail of a dragon?"

"Yeah? The one with blood on its mouth?" Another female voice replied. Kelly. She was the one re-braiding his hair.

Risha gave a slight chuckle. "Yeah, that's a Chimera."

"And what's the one it's attacking?" Sara asked.

"That's a Manticore." Risha replied calmly. "It has the body of a lion, the face and ears of a man, but with three rows of sharp teeth set in each jaw and poison spikes on its tail."

"So what is the story?" Sara probed.

Risha laughed lightly. "It's a story that my brother's been telling for years. A story of how the Chimera will one day conquer the heartless Manticore. Chimera can mean one or many, so the large Chimera could symbolize one great one or many coming together. But either way, the Manticore will fall."

"I don't get it." Kelly replied pouting.

Risha shrugged and pushed himself into a sitting position. "What's there to get? I liked the story so I drew a picture of it. I liked the picture so I got it tattooed on my back." Risha smiled as he looked at the pair of twins beside him. "So come my Sara, my Kelly, what shall we do tonight?"

Both girls laughed. "It's Kelly's turn tonight, oh Egyptian god of a love toy," Sara replied giggling.

Risha pretended to pout. "But I want to play with both."

"Uh-uh Riri, we agreed to share but we didn't agree to _share_." Kelly replied as she kissed his cheek. "Come on my Egyptian love. You're taking me out tonight."

Risha laughed again at that. "How did I get so lucky?" He asked. "I've got the two most beautiful women in the world."

"You're pretty handsome yourself, handsome." Sara replied. She gave him a quick hug and a kiss. "Now get." She added as she lightly slapped his bottom.

Just then the phone rang. Risha answered it brightly. "You've reached the party hotline." He joked. "What can we do you for?"

"Risha?" The voice on the other end of the phone asked.

Suddenly all of the playfulness went out of Risha's voice. "No." He replied quickly as he walked out of the room. "Before you say anything the answer is 'No'."

"Risha." Zack replied firmly. "You are coming to Seattle. Now."

"But Zack."

"I said now soldier, this is important."

"No, no, no, no, no."

"Ri."

"I have only one thing to say Zack. Twins."

"Ri." Zack replied firmly. "Don't do a Tayrahn on me."

"Twins, Zack. Beautiful, female, long legged, big busted, sexy, nymphomaniac twins."

"I'm calling all of the squadron into Seattle. Avoid the sector police and call me as soon as you get within the city limits." Zack ordered he then rattled off Logan's number.

Risha groaned. "Twins, Zack." He muttered but he knew it was a loosing battle.

"Family Risha. I expect to see you within twenty-four hours soldier." Was Zack's only reply and then the line went dead.

Risha sighed as he hung up the phone.

"Who was that?" Kelly asked.

"The Chimera." Risha muttered under his breath.

"Hmm?" Sara asked.

"Big brother." Risha replied. "Family emergency, and when big brother says jump, well if you don't reply 'how high' you're likely to get kneecapped. Look, I have to leave now, I'll ring you both tomorrow and I should be back in a week or so."

"Risha." Sara groaned.

"Riri." Kelly pouted.

Risha gave them both a hug and a long kiss goodbye in turn. "I'm sorry babies, but I'll make it up to you 'kay?"

Five minutes later he was out of the apartment and making good time towards Seattle.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Oh Michael..." Kita groaned.

"Kita.. Oh..." Michael groaned in reply. "Oh god... Oh..."

"You like that huh?" Kita asked.

"Oh yeah... Oh... God... I love you Nikita."

Kita froze. It was one thing to fool around with an awesome man, but love? Love had never been part of the deal. How could he love her when he didn't even know her.

"Nikita?" Michael asked realizing that something was wrong.

"What did you just say?" Kita asked pulling even further away from him.

Michael looked Kita in the eye. "I said I love you."

Kita just shook her head. "No." she whispered. "No Michael, you don't love me."

"Kita..." Michael whispered.

"Do-don't say that Michael. Don't ever say that again."

"Nikita, Nikita I love you," Michael whispered as he touched her cheek.

Kita just shook her head. "You don't even know me, Michael."

"Ki..." Michael pleaded.

Just then the phone rang. Kita grabbed the phone up on the first ring. "Speak." She ordered.

"You're needed." Zack's voice replied.

"Where? When? I can come right now." Kita replied.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


	10. 10

A few hours later,

A few hours later, Bree found herself staring out in to the night sky from Logan's window over looking the city. Not really lost in thought, more like concentrating and worrying about the upcoming events.

She wanted to stay in Seattle. She felt welcome here with Max and Original Cindy. Even Sketchy was a welcome change. Hell, the whole Jam Pony deal could work out for her. She would be making money, instead of stealing it. And she could grab her own place, eat, sleep. She could actually live. And be close to someone she felt like she'd known for years already.

She glanced behind her, at the figures strewn around the room. With her ears, she could hear Logan sleeping peacefully in his room down the hall. Zack was sacked on the couch, and Original Cindy and Max were sleeping in the guestroom.

She hadn't been able to fall asleep, and everyone else had just suddenly zoned and sacked a couple hours ago. Yet she still sat here. Wide awake and dreaming.

A soft sigh escaped her lips and she turned her gaze back out the window. She wasn't surprised at all when someone came quietly from behind.

"What are you doing up?" Max's voice asked softly, grabbing a seat sideways beside her.

"Couldn't sleep." Bree acknowledged her presence with a glance.

"Don't worry about it."

"About what?"

"I know you're worried, but we have good chances here. Damn good chances. Not to say that I'm not worried but you should at least get some sleep."

Bree took it in to consideration. "I don't sleep much actually," she whispered softly.

"Neither do I," Max replied. A thoughtful silence followed for a few seconds.

"I'm sorry." Bree whispered, turning to the girl beside her.

"About what?"

"Everything. Just barging in to your life, disrupting it. Everything. About Zack and Logan and.... Even work. I'm just sorry. It would have been better if I'd left before you'd known."

"Don't say that!" Max said, a little harsher than needed. "If you wouldn't have been around, Sketchy could be dead right now. And you probably would already be back in Manticore. You can only hide for so long. And, Zack was already grumpy, don't take it too personally. As for Logan... Well, I don't know about Logan, but he'll get over it. He lives for this sort of stuff. It's a guy thing. And Normal. Well Normal is anything but normal, okay li'l sis? I'm glad you're back. I wouldn't be sending for t he cavalry if I wanted you to leave."

The speech went right to Bree's heart, causing her chest to ache for a moment. Suddenly, she leaned over and gave her sister a hug. Max squeezed her back, and smiled in the darkness. Her eyes glittering almost green, like a cat's.

"Everything will be good." Max spoke.

"All good, all the time?" Bree asked, grinning.

"As soon as we get this war over with, we'll all be free to do what ever we want."

//As long as no one gets killed in the process.// Bree thought to herself. She glanced back out in to the inky night, alongside Max who did the same.

They both fell asleep on the couch they were on, curled up like cats.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


	11. 11

Max awoke with a stiff neck.

Max awoke with a stiff neck. Most likely awakened by the sound of Bling arriving. She groaned and rubbed at the offending muscles, noticing with some surprise that she'd been sleeping on the couch instead of the bed in the guest room. That made her remember the conversation she'd had with Bree. She smiled slightly, then stretched as she got off the couch.

Making her way in to Logan's kitchen, she found him hard at work making starting breakfast. "Making another culinary miracle?" Max asked from the doorway.

Logan looked up and smiled, "Attempting to."

"I'm sure it'll be good, I'm starved. I'm sure everyone else is too. Need some help?"

Logan nodded silently, engrossed in whisking something in a bowl. He pointed to the fridge. "I should have some eggs left in there. remind me, when this is all over, to grab some more from the market."

"Sure." Max replied easily. "So, where's the girls?"

"Well, Cindy's in the washroom, cleaning up..."

"And Bree?"

Logan looked up, suddenly. "I thought she was sleeping on the couch."

"She was, we both fell asleep there ... An' I got the neck to prove it." She rubbed at it, easing the knot out. "Maybe she went an' grabbed a bed sometime in the night. Wouldn't blame her." Max smirked.

"You gonna go check on her?"

"Naw, she's a big girl," Max replied.

"Funny, the way you went about it, you'd think she was your little sister."

"She is my little sister," Max replied, giving him a look, "But I don't wanna wake the girl. She barely had anything to eat or drink in the past few months, I'm sure. She'll need all the strength she can get to get her through this."

Original Cindy wandered in to the kitchen then, "Mmm, what's the man cooking this morning."

Logan looked at her, a bemused smile stretched on his face. "Nothing yet," he replied. "Soon, I hope it'll be crepes and eggs. Best I can do on short notice."

"Whuteva, food sounds good to Original Cindy right now. Any food. Zack pounding on my door interrupting my dinner didn't exactly do wonders for my stomach, a'ight?"

"Right," Max replied.

"Ahh, so where's my other girl at?" Cindy asked, walking in to the living room.

A bolt of panic shot through Max's veins then. "She's not in the guest room?" she asked quickly, following Cindy.

"Naw, last time I saw her she was sittin'on that couch over there by tha' window, starin'in to the night." she replied.

Max turned around, walking quickly through the kitchen to check the bedrooms.

"Max?" Logan asked from the kitchen as she raced back through after a moment. "Max!"

She came back in to the kitchen. "Bree's gone, she isn't in the apartment." Max said quickly, "I gotta go look for her."

"I'm sure she hasn't gone too far-" Logan began, putting down the bowl and whisk.

"Logan." She looked him in the eyes, "she doesn't have to go far in order for Lydecker to see her and grab her!"

Zack, probably awakened from all the noise, came in to the kitchen on full alert, standing beside Original Cindy. "What's going on?" he asked.

"Bree's gone," Max replied, stuffing her feet in to her shoes.

"Dammit," Zack swore, turning on his heel and heading back in to the other room. He quickly returned, shoes on, and met Max on her way out of the kitchen. The two of them left, closing the door loudly, and almost running down the hall. 

"Damn," Original Cindy said, still in her bathrobe. "This ain't soundin' too good." She headed in to the other room, quickly throwing on some clothes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Bree!" a voice called out behind her. Bree turned around, a half smile on her face at the sound of her name.

"Hey," she greeted Sketchy as he pulled up on his messenger bike.

"Hey yourself, Normal's freaking, raving on and on about you Max and Original Cindy. You guys plannin' on showing for work today or what?"

"Uhh," Bree replied, "actually I don't think that-"

"Normal's freakin'especially on your ass, you're on trial, remember?"

Bree stopped talking. She shouldn't go. Shouldn't. But she found herself walking with Sketchy as he moved down the side of the road on his bike. "I'm headin'back, you can hop on the bars," Sketchy pointed out.

"Nah, it's okay," she replied, thinking about how she'd left this morning when everyone was sleeping. She should go back. Or call.

"You are comin'back with me, right?"

"I can't, I've really gotta get back to Max and them..." she began.

"Come on, " Sketchy pleaded with his eyes. "Plus, we're just about there, see." He pointed ahead. "At least come in an' tell Normal you can't work it today."

Bree stopped when she realized how close she really was to Jam Pony. She saw Herbal come through the doors on his bike, then recognize her. He called something back in to the shop and a few seconds later Normal stepped outside, the headphones hanging over his ear and packages in his arms.

"You are on trial!" he snapped, "Remember that. Not to mention you've already gotten yourself in trouble. Already been people here searching you out. It took even Max a few weeks to make that happen!"

Bree didn't move, instead she stared in awe. "Listen, Normal, I can't work it today, I... I really have to get home to my mom, she's sick. I gotta make a run to the drug store and grab her some stuff, and head back. It's really bad. I just thought I'd stop by and let you know," she said, looking at Sketchy, and warning him not to say anything.

"Yeah, yeah, you tell Max to stop telling you to use the same excuses she does!" he said.

Bree sighed and shook her head. It was only then that she noticed the white van parked across the street. Nondescript. It wouldn't have looked out of place at all, if the two people in the front hadn't been staring at her and talking on a walkie-talkie. 

Lydecker spotted her first, pride swelling in his chest as he saw his girl. All grown up now... she'd be seventeen right now. 

"Ten-Six all teams," he ordered over the radio. He hadn't know it was going to be this easy. Part of him thought there'd be more of a fight to it.

"Ten-Four, alpha team," a reply came back. Bravo team followed answer.

He waited for the right moment.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Max and Zack split up, Max using her bike and Zack using the recon method of jumping rooftops and sneaking in shadows. She headed right for Jam Pony. Probably a dumb move, but at least she could check in with her peeps there, see if any one had seen Bree.

Doubt filled her mind, and she found herself hoping against hope that Bree was safe. Maybe she'd just gone to grab something from their apartment, or maybe to get some food. Or even if she'd just gone to work Max could hunt her down by catching a glimpse of the run she'd taken. Being on the streets wasn't exactly the smart thing to be doing at the moment.

They didn't even have their army in place.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jani arrived in Seattle precisely four hours after the she'd hung up on Zack. Luckily she'd had a map stored away for some reason, and it took her only seconds to memorize her route she would take. //Give me a few minutes guys, don't be starting the fight without me now.//

Jani flew past the stores on the streets, then saw Jam Pony. //That is the place where Max works,// she thought. Zack mentioned it at one point in their past conversati ons. A white van was parked on the street, and she flew past, glancing in the driver side window. It took her a block to realize and register what she'd seen. She stepped on the brakes, turning around a sharp corner and parked the car she'd raced to Seattle in. Then walked up the street a little, ducking in to an alley and watching the people in the white van.

//Lydecker.// She almost spat the name. He was seated in the passenger seat, talking on a radio and staring across the street at a girl.

She moved her eyes around, focusing on the surrounding buildings and spotting Lydecker's men. Zack had mentioned that they had the place scoped out, but what was with all the people. She counted half a dozen. And those were only the ones she could see. Which meant they had at least a dozen hiding elsewhere, just waiting for a signal.

The roar of a motor cycle filled the street then, and Jani turned to look down at the bike, swerving through traffic... It was then she recognized the person on it. Max.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Zack followed the general direction Max headed, creating short cuts along his way. Jumping through alleys where it was appropriate, until he knew Max was headed for Jam Pony. Suddenly it seemed like the smartest place to first go. He followed suite

.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Logan watched as Original Cindy dialed a number on the phone, then pressed it to her ear. As if answering his questioning glance she spoke up.

"I know my girls like running around the city, but Original Cindy's got some sense in her too, an'she say call the obvious place first."

"Normal," Original Cindy snapped to attention as the phone was answered.

"Well, isn't this just a regular get together. You, young lady, better get your butt over here or you're gonna be looking for a new job," he demanded.

"'Lax, Normal, is Max or Bree there?"

"Of course, like I said, a regular get together."

"Well damn Normal, which one is it? Max or Bree."

"Both." Normal replied.

"Great, thanks Normal."

"Hey, you ain't getting out of it that easy missy, you better get your-" She cut him off, hanging up the phone on him.

Logan raised his eyebrows in question. "Our girls are down at Jam Pony. Now all we gotta do is go an' pick 'em up." she said, grabbing her shoes.

A knock came on the door. "Bling, can you answer that!" Logan called out loud. 

The door opened a few seconds later. Logan rolled out in to the living room to see who it was.

"Logan," Bling said, keeping the door slightly open. "Person here askin' for Max."

"Open the door." Logan told him. He opened it, but still stood there. "Which one are you?" he asked the girl, standing there, long blonde hair falling over her shoulders.

"Syl." the girl replied.

"Great, just in time to go on a road trip," he told her, she looked at him, backing up a step. "They're down at Jam Pony." He replied. Cindy gave the address and a look of recognition flew in to the girl's eyes.

"What is it?" Logan asked quickly.

"Jam Pony?" she asked.

"Yeah, so?"

"Yeah, so on my way here I spotted Lydecker's men setting up camp. Looked like they were ready for action. If Max is down there, you might want to warn them to get out of there." she said. Without another word she turned and ran down the hall.

Original Cindy dove back in to the kitchen and grabbed the phone, dialing once more.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tinga slipped past the border guards and back into the good ol'United States of America with surprising ease. //Funny.// Tinga thought. //They don't want to let you out but they don't care who slips in. Typical.// With a shrug Tinga continued on her way. She felt guilty that she hadn't woken Charlie before she'd left, but after all that they'd been through in the past few months she knew that she wouldn't have gotten out of the door without an argument.

It'd been bad enough having to run off in the middle of the night once, and it had been almost three weeks before Zack had let her on her own. There was no way that Zack would have allowed her to contact them if he'd known. So she'd just waited it out and then sent Charlie a message. Charlie had _not_ been happy. But he had come. Tinga, Penny to non-X5's, had always told him that there were parts of her past that she could never share with him. He hadn't liked it but what could he do? When he'd asked for an explanation she'd given him the only answer she could.

> _"We all have our demons Charlie." She'd told him. "Some of mine are flesh and blood and they found me in Portland. I would have only gotten you and Case hurt by trying to come back to you."_
> 
> _"So what?" Charlie had asked. "Every time trouble comes you're just gonna run?" _
> 
> _"My demons come carrying semi-automatic machine guns Charlie. Yes, when trouble comes I will run. I will run to take it as far away from you and Case as possible. But I will always come back to you. Or get you to me."_

Yeah, Charlie hadn't liked it, but he knew she had a dark past. Kind of hard to miss considering how many times she woke up screaming or crying even these days. Tinga sighed, and then she smiled. She was going to see baby sister Max, an d from what she could tell baby sis had somehow managed to swing a family reunion. Sure it was likely to be a family reunion on the battle field but that was somehow poetic for genetically engineered killing machines, wasn't it? \par \par "All by the grace of God." Tinga whispered to herself. "Even for those not made by }{\i\cf1 H}{\cf1 is hand."~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~"Dammit!" Jondy yelled as she slammed the hood down on her overheating car. "Dammit! Dammit! Dammit!" Here she was, stuck in the middle of nowhere with steam erupti ng from the remains of her vehicle. Just then a loud *crack* could be heard and boiling water started to spew forth from under her car. Deciding that this was more than she could take Jondy began to attack the car. She continued to send kicks and punches at it until a voice pulled her out of her rage. \par \par "You alright?" A male voice asked her. \par \par She turned to look at the person speaking. A young male, maybe twentieth, likely Hispanic in a very tidy looking jeep. "Not really." She replied with a shrug. "Stupid piece of shit." \par \par "Where you heading?" He asked. \par \par "Seattle." She muttered. \par \par "Same." He replied. "Want a lift?" \par \par Jondy grabbed her bag and tossed it in the back of the Jeep. "Thanks." She replied. \par \par "No biggy." The guy replied. "I'm Krit." He added extending his hand. \par \par "Jondy." Jondy replied. \par \par Krit froze. "Jondy as in 'big brother Zack's gonna kick my a** if I don't get to Seattle quick smart'Jondy?" He asked looking at her carefully. \par \par "Krit as in 'big brother Zack's gonna kick my a** if I don't get to Seattle quick smart'Krit?" \par \par "That'd be the one." Krit replied. \par \par "Oh that's be bloody typical." Jondy replied with a laugh. "My knight in shining armor would turn out to be family." \par \par Krit pulled a face and started up the jeep. "Missed ya too big sis." He replied sarcastically. \par \par }}


	12. 12

Untitled Normal Page

Bree focused on the van, eyeing it and the people inside. She recognized Lydecker. Even after all these years, he hadn't changed at all. Still the commando type that didn't jump in to things. But she knew if she ran, he'd attack. If she walked, they'd follow. She was at a loss here. The best she could do now was salvage any of the people around, make it as easy as possible.

She vaguely recognized Max's voice calling her, and she turned. She turned and raised her right hand, clenching it in a fist and holding it about shoulder level. Max saw this, and then suddenly knew.

Her eyes immediately flew across the street to the van, and from here Bree could sense her panic. Bree met her eyes, wishing her away. //Please Max. After all this don't get yourself caught up in Lydecker's net,// she pleaded. She signaled to her, moving her forefinger between her other hand and pulling it away, following the action with what seemed like one hand pulling away from the other.

~Escape and Evade.~ Max recognized the sign language.

Normal's phone rang then, interrupting the calm before the storm. Normal was bickering with whoever was on the other end, looking unhappy. Bree tuned in.

//Original Cindy.// Bree thought to herself. "Normal, you better gimme that phone before I render you unconscious!" She said with clenched teeth.

Normal, surprised at her sudden rough image, unclipped the set and handed it to her, retreating into the building and shaking his head. Sketchy followed.

She silently thanked god. At least they'd be safe for now. It couldn't be long now, before Lydecker noticed she had noticed. A couple minutes. Maybe.

"Cindy?" Bree asked in to the phone.

"Bree, damn girl, you an'Max bettah haul your asses outta there or you gonna be deep in some kinda shit, a'ight? Trust me on that one."

Bree saw Lydecker get out of the van and look across the street at her. They saw the fear and recognition register in each others eyes. He held up his radio then, and spoke in to it. She could hear it from where she stood.

"Ten-twelve Alpha team, ten-six Bravo and Charlie." He said calmly, staring across the street. A smile uplifted the corner of his lips.

"Original Cindy? I'm gonna say we're in that deep shit already."

"Don't worry Boo, hold on a few secs longer, back up is on its way."

Max made her way down the street to Bree's side, and stared across at Lydecker, who recognized her immediately.

"Gosh damn, someone managed to swing a reunion." A voice spoke up from behind the two girls. Max looked behind, falling from her defensive stance for a second.

"Jani!" Max smiled.

"Hey sis, how's life treatin' ya?" she asked, smiling.

"Kinda shitty." Max said, glancing across, then at Bree. "Jani, Bree. Bree, Jani. Bree's the X6 we're swinging this party for, so lets get one of three down and out so we can party quicker." Max commented, turning and swinging into position.

They covered each other's backs.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Logan, I'm telling ya, we better get our asses over there an'help 'em out or they gonna be slaughtered. At least this way the got a fast getaway, right?"

"Just one second." Logan called from the other room, his voice rising a pitch.

"Logan?" Cindy called.

"What?"

"I'm takin'your car. Original Cindy don't got no license but she can drive, a'ight, Bye!" she grabbed the keys from the table as Logan called out something about his car, but she ignored it. How hard could it be to work this bitch?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was only two minutes in to their assault they knew they were going to be outnumbered. Even with the ave rage of four soldiers down or out each, more soldiers were quickly advancing, trapping them in among a barricade of unconscious, dead or retreating soldiers. As a group they moved away from the masses and backed slightly down the street. Lydecker across the street had a strained look on his face, watching how easily the girl's moved in to their old habits. It wouldn't be an easy fight.

"Is this a girl's only thing, or can I join?" Zack asked, landing from the above rooftop via only his feet.

Bree glanced at him, but he was watching the men approaching. The soldiers.

"Okay troops. This _is_ what we were trained to do, so lets do it!" Jani exclaimed, dropping the defensive and moving offensive.

She took out the closest man with a fake to the stomach and a foot to the temple. Flipping backwards and landing on her feet, she switched and began on the next one.

Zack got a look on his face, and moved fast and ferociously, attacking the soldier in front of him with a dive and roll, then hit him in the face with an elbow. The guy was out like a light.

Bree moved up behind him, taking on the next soldier to give him a recovery. She attacked without much ferocity, but took out the two afterwards in a quick, efficient manner.

Max got lost in thought for the briefest of moments, watching Bree advance like that. She moved faster and more efficient than any one of the X5's she could remember. And she still was keeping calm, cool and collected. Following suite Max launched at series of kicks and distracting thrusts, moving down her own line of soldiers.

Bree could see soldiers ready to move in from almost every direction, a couple seemed to have gathered around something. //Someone.// Her mind suddenly screamed.

She used her powerful legs to jump over the head of a guard in front of her, ducked and rolled under the next. taking a moment to make use of the helpful position she shot a leg up. He fell cursing like there was no tomorrow. Which for him, was probably true.

She began on the crowd of three soldiers, in the process of taking someone down. At first she was convinced it was Max or Jani. But as she moved closer she saw it was a taller girl with long blonde hair that fell over her shoulders. Her nose was pressed hard to the ground and a taser pressed into her back. She was convulsing from the electricity. The wind shifted and although Bree didn't recognize her, there was a barcode on the back of her neck. She attacked wildly, losing her sense of calmness. No one messed with her family. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Original Cindy sat in the driver's seat after flying down the stairs in Logan's building. She sat there, staring at the gearshifts. It was like nothing she'd really ever seen before. It struck her that this was because Logan had no use of his legs, and she rolled her eyes, just about ready to run off to Jam Pony when Logan rolled himself down the ramp, barreling across the sidewalk to the car.

"Move over." He told her.

"Gladly." She commented, pushing herself over the center seat and sinking in to the passenger seat. It surprised her at the speed Logan was able to get himself in. He closed the door, started the Aztec, shifted and slammed on the gas, burning rubber out in to the street.

"Uhh.." was all Cindy could say. He looked over at her.

"What?"

Original Cindy looked back, "Your chair-" she began.

"Will be there when I get back I'm sure. If not, the Cale fund won't refuse me the right to a new one."

"Won't you need it?"

"Thought you said all I was doing was driving." He commented. Original Cindy shut up, hoping this would be a quick in and out thing.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A hard blow stunned Bree, stopping her for a moment in her tracks. The soldiers used that moment to overtake her, albeit temporarily. They moved in like locusts feeding, and Bree was quickly hit to the ground, a taser stinging her side. She dropped convulsing for a moment, then lay still. As soon as they lay their hands on her she used their awkwardness of the moment against them, pulling two of them down on the ground with her. Maybe not the smartest move, but the best. She jumped up and began a routine of kicking, punching and jabbing, feeling like she was back in Manticore being tested all over again.

She pushed it out of her mind. //This is for your life,// she told herself. She was going to win this one.

Max was suffering from a few minor blows, ducking, dodging where possible, and using mostly her fists, as opposed to Zack behind her who had taken hold of a gun and was going trigger happy. She sighed as one incredibly clumsy soldier almost tripped over his own gear, dropping his gun. She grabbed it.

"Too bad you did that, I don't like shooting people," she commented. The guy paused, feeling almost reassured he wasn't going to be killed. "Too bad for you I don't have a problem knocking people out with them." She continued, swinging the heavy FN P-90 across his temple. She threw it away then, remembering from training that it was _the_ weapon of choice by Manticore personnel and assassins. "Low recoil and awesome sight system..." she muttered, moving towards another soldier.

But who needed guns when you were a genetically engineered soldier?

Syl removed herself from the ground, checking around for her savior. It was a girl, looked about nineteen or so, same age as Max, and she was fighting like a demon.

//Hello Bree,// she thought to herself, remembering the X6's name. The girl moved quicker than she'd ever seen. Efficiently and deliberately. But even Syl noticed her calmness chipping away, and the real soldier emerging. Her movements became quicker, with more force behind them. And that was a hell of a lot of force even by X5 standards.

She turned back to her own problems, and while she waited on the defensive for the soldier in front of her to attack she saw Lydecker standing across the street. Hate and fear surged through her at the site of their own personal Antichrist. The two didn't mix well. One quick punch and the guy in front of her was out like a light. She turned, surveying the area. There were men strewn about on the ground , littering the sidewalk, or stumbling away from the area. All in a matter of four minutes now. She jumped in to the action as squealing tires came fast around a nearby corner.

Logan fought to control the wheel, steering it over the curb and around the corner, shooting in to traffic. Beside him Original Cindy let out a surprised shriek and gripped the seats with her nails. She pointed, "I'm guessing that's them," she commented dryly, attempting to slow her breathing.

"Let's get 'em, and remind me never, to let you drive again after all this is through." Cindy commented. \par \par Logan leaned on the horn, blaring it down the street. As most people didn't have cars and the ones who did were pulled to the curb, enjoying the 'street entertainment', Logan pulled right up beside the group. In truth the area was relatively clear. Logan didn't even _want_ to think about how Lydecker had achieved that. He surveyed the five of them fighting in the midst of strewn soldiers, looking like toys.

He leaned on the horn again, and lo oked out the window beside him to see Lydecker, standing there trying to look past his car. His gaze then went inside the car. Recognition was written across his face, but he stood there, still for a moment. Logan leaned on the horn, drawing everyone's attention.

"Cavalry's here!" Syl yelled loudly enough for everyone to hear. As if an automatic reaction, it seemed like anyone who was fighting at that moment gave one last hit and retreated, literally piling into Logan's Aztec.

Max was about to get in whe n she realized they were missing a head. She turned and noticed Bree, who had suddenly lost her calmness about the fight. She was fighting away with a soldier although he was down and out. She kept hitting him like he were the source of every one of her problems, although blood dripped profusely from his nose and burst lip.

Max took a step back, "Bree!" she yelled. There was no pause in the girl's movements. "Dammit." she swore, "Bree!" she screamed. The girl finally paused and looked up. Bree finally sn apped out of it, looking down at the fallen soldier who was laying still on the ground, then at her blood-covered fists.

A glint caught Max's vision, and she didn't even have to turn before she knew what it was. Lydecker holding a gun.

Max could see him out of her peripheral, and ducked behind the car although she knew it wasn't aimed for her. All she could do was watch a red feathered dart fly in to Bree's shoulder, and the young girl, her sister, collapse on the pavement after a few brief seconds.

Some one scrambled out of the car behind her. Zack. She followed, grabbing Bree by the ankles and hauling her as Zack passed her on to Syl whom was sitting in the far corner on the seat. She grabbed the girl, quickly but carefully, and tried to hold her on her lap although she was limp as a ragdoll. Max and Zack climbed in the back seat as Jani climbed in to the back hatch area. The door slammed shut on it's own as Logan stepped on the gas, hitting two soldiers in front of his car. A hail of bullets slammed the Aztec, and everyone ducked until it was over.

Silence filled the crammed car as it sped down the streets.

"Take us home Logan." Max muttered from the back. "This girl wants one long, long shower and a heap full of food when she gets out of it."

For some reason, everyone in the car, or everyone who was conscious anyways, began to crack up at Max's sarcastic remark.

"Max, remind me never to let you plan these reunions, a'ight?" Jani asked from the back.

They laughed harder.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Deck, _exactly_ how many teams did you have out there today, for _one_ girl?" Renfro demanded in her cool tone.

"Four." Lydecker replied from his leather chair.

"_Four_ teams," she said, turning to stare at him. "_Four_ teams for _one_ girl, I thought you said this would be in and out."

"I wasn't planning on her having back up."

"Yes, yes about that backup. It wasn't just one was it, not just X5-452, it was more of them than that, right?"

"Yes," he sighed.

"Yes." She said it simply enough then slammed the file folder on his desk, "Yes, because there was one big fucking whole reunion out there on the streets this morning, wasn't there? And even with _Four_ teams, you couldn't take them down, Deck. Four teams." she said wistfully, then smiled. "Still," she mused, "Four X5's and one X6 against four of our very best teams. You realize what this proves don't you?"

He didn't reply, instead just stared.

"It means, Deck, that these kids, can be better than we ever expected. I'd say escaping made them stronger, wouldn't you?" 

He stayed quiet, instead of replying. She would try and twist whatever he said anyhow.

"It also means, Deck, that they know we're after X6-544. Which means, they will be hanging around here, playing bodyguard for her. Which means, if we find her, we find them." His eyes almost lit up then.

"I take it you'll be agreeing to my terms then," she said in a voice sweeter than honey. (And more sickly than molasses.)

"What terms?" Lydecker demanded, "These are my children-"

"_Not_ your children, Deck. Manticore's children. Which means everyone gets to play, it's just a matter of who wins."

He just glared at her. 

"Good then. X5-734, in here, _now_."

The X5, formerly known as Brin, entered the room, standing at attention. "Yes Ma'am?" she asked.

"You will be working with Donald here, I want you to find those kids, find a time they're all there, and let me know."

"Yes ma'am."

She turned to Lydecker, "Play nice now, Donald." Then she left the room, her overpowering scent filling the emptiness she left behind. The door closed behind her and Lydecker found himself staring at X5-734. Brin.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


	13. 13

A hard blow stunned Bree,

Despite Max's rather glib comment about food and a shower, Bree was clearly her number one priority. She held the younger girl in the protective circle of her arms as they all made the ride up the elevator and plainly refused to let anybody else near her. As Bree was still out cold, Max, Syl and Jani quickly spirited her off to Logan's bathroom to clean her up. And it was only with some coaxing from Logan and (surprisingly) Zack that Max would even let Bling look at her.

Knowing that there was little that she could do, and that she was only in the way, Original Cindy took the opportunity to use the guest bathroom and change into some fresh clothes. (She still had on the ones she'd been wearing the day before.) Zack grabbed the bathroom as soon as Cindy was finished with it and Logan retreated to the kitchen after offering the services of his washing machine and dryer.

Jani grabbed Logan's shower just before Syl was able to kick Zack out of the guest bathroom and Cindy went to help Logan in the kitchen. Bree, having been placed on the couch, rather than in the guest bedroom on the theory that it was easier to keep an eye on her, was completely unaware of anything. Unconscious as she was, Bree was trapped in her own version of hell. The cold, white, Manticore version.

Max paced and watched her until Cindy brought her over a cup of coffee and talked her into sitting down. "Now c'mon Boo." Cindy said gently. "You _know_ she's gonna be jus' fine."

Max nodded and sighed and then looked at her friend. "You've got fresh clothes." She noted with some surprise. 

Cindy laughed lightly at that. "So 'ave you an' Bree, Boo. Zack told me to grab some stuff an' I did."

Max gave Cindy a hug. "I'm sorry I got you into this Boo."

"Hey now, Original Cindy recalls we already been ov'r this bitch. I'm in for the duration homegurl. An' believe me, e'en if all ya sistah's are straight it's worth it, jus' for the perving."

Max laughed at that and then frowned. "What if we can never go home again? I've left so much stuff there."

"You can always get more stuff gurl, an' anyhow what's there that's so special? Ya 'baby' is here, what so ya loose a few tools and some nice clothes. Big deal."

Max sighed as she remembered the six-thousand-dollar dress that she'd worn to Logan's cousin's wedding. "Some _really_ nice clothes." She muttered with a sigh.

Cindy raised an eyebrow at that. "How stupid you think I am Boo? I grabbed da dress. Zack nearly had a hissy fit but I saved ya dress gurl."

"You did?" Max asked in surprise.

"Aha." Cindy replied nodding. "'Tis hangin' up in da guest bedroom wardrobe as we speak. Now you gonna eat or what Boo?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Zane sighed as the guard at the checkpoint gave him a hard time.

"We don't need any more wild animals in this city boy." The guard replied in a condescending manner.

"What Griff?" Zane replied lightly as he scratched her ear. "She's not wild, are ya girl?"

The guard held his hand out looking for a bribe. "Still," He replied. "If I let her in I'd be bendin' the rules."

Zane pulled a few bills out of his pocket and handed them to the guard. "Well rules were meant to be bent, weren't they?" He replied with a smile.

"Glad we see eye to eye young man." The guard replied as he raised the barrier.

Zane laughed and gave the guard a wave. //Glad I didn't have ta kill ya.// He thought in reply. //After all, I already need a shower. Ah well, can't be far now.// "We're going ta see your aunts and uncles Griff." He told his dog. "Taking the Griffin to meet the Chimera that I'm goin'to help take down the Manticore." Zane laughed. "I think I'd been listening to Zack complain about Risha to much the day I named you. Let's just hope they've got hot water, huh Griff?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Only a few minutes after talking to Original Cindy, and waiting for the guestroom to clear out, she entered, looking around. Surprisingly, although everyone had used it, it was still neat and clean.

//Product of Manticore training,// she thought bitterly.

She opened the closet gently, just hoping that Original Cindy had said was true, and it was. The dress fell softly, hanging on the door and flowing with the slight disturbance in the air. A smile lit her lips, and she just stared, thinking of t hat night.

Of happier times. When she wasn't running quite so hard, or watching her back so much. But it was worth it. She could hear the constant chatter of the X5's out in the hall, living room and beyond, glad that her family was once again all together.

It was as if a part of her she'd been missing since dropping through that ice had come back to her. A piece of the happy past. The terror of the first few moments of the escape came back to her, but now it only gave her a thrill. Sure, she could have been killed, but no sense drilling on the 'what could have been' situations.

"Max!" someone called outside the door.

She recognized Zack's voice.

Instead of answering through the door, she closed the closet wistfully and opened the guest bedroom door, venturing in to the hall.

"What?" she asked.

"Just wondering if you were gonna have some food, that's all," he said.

She noticed then that the constant chatter was dying down to a dull roar, and there were few words as her family began to tear up Logan's food.

"Yeah, give me a few minutes to clean up." She said gently, still lost in happier memories. Zack nodded and she again retreated to the guestroom and her thoughts. But her stomach didn't allow her to do so for long.

She entered the kitchen, surprised to find everyone seated around the table, having grabbed some extra chairs from somewhere in the apartment. (Or maybe even somewhere outside of the apartment knowing Logan.)

Bling and Bree weren't in the room, but she could see Bree's blond hair still falling over the arm of the couch. And she could hear Bling pacing at the door, waiting.

Logan's eyes warmed at the sight of her in new fresh clothes, ones that weren't quite so torn or dirty.

She gave him a wistful smile and grabbed a seat that was free, Zack grabbing one across from her. She saw he hadn't gotten himself anything to eat yet, waiting for her first. //Always were the stubborn one,// she thought as she grabbed some food, glanced back in to the living room and frowned.

Original Cindy, sensing this, put down her fork and grabbed her girl's hand, giving it a squeeze. "Don't make me.." she began to whisper.

Max looked back to the table, picked up her fork and began to chow down. Who knows when they'd be eating again, right? 

It was after everyone had been fed that the room once again was filled with voices talking. No one wanted to move from the table first, and so they all sat there, clearing the dishes aside and drinking whatever was passed around and there was enough of.

Max was watching Jani pour herself a drink, and she couldn't help but say something. 

"Jani.." she began, watching her pour juice in to a glass that already had some milk in it.

Jani looked down, then grinned. Original Cindy pressed her lips together tight, but a laugh escaped anyways, and soon Jani was passing it around, daring them to try it.

It got to Max and she grabbed it, looking at the milky-purple froth it had formed and flinched,

"Too much for ya Maxie?" Syl teased, having just taken a sip.

"No, not enough." Max replied back, grabbing the pepper from the table and popping off the top with a quick movement from her thumb.

"Oh, gross." Logan said, Max looked up at him, meeting his eyes and challenging him.

"I'm _not_ drinking that. Not if my life depended on it," Logan replied, staring back at her.

She grinned, raised the concoction to her lips and took a mouthful, just to attempt in a gross-out.

"Would you drink it if it were for Max's life here?" Jani asked, teasingly. It still had it's effect.

Logan promptly turned beet red, unsuspecting. Max tried to breathe in to calm herself, and tasting the suddenly overpowering nasty taste of milk, grape juice and pepper, she spat it out, watching the spray land all over the table... and Logan.

Everyone paused for a second, looking at Max, then to Logan, who was now wet and covered with this mixture. Then they began to chuckle.

Even Max couldn't help break a grin. She'd turned to hide her face in her hands when it flew out of nowhere, landing on her lap.

She looked down, and although she'd seen and felt it land there, she could barely believe her eyes. They darted across the table to find Logan lowering his hand, then she looked down at the bun in her lap.

Without thinking she grabbed the buttery roll, without taking aim, and let it fly. It landed across the table in Syl's soup, splashing the formerly hot liquid across the table and herself. For a moment, she didn't know what to do, then she shook her head, grabbed what ever she could grab, and started throwing.

With the occasional comment in between tosses, Logan managed to get out about how this probably wasn't such a good idea.

"You started it!" Jani yelled from under the table where she was ducking.

The room went quiet suddenly, and Jani peered over the table. Her eyes flickered to the entrance of the kitchen and her very short cut red-dyed hair brushed the top of the table.

Zack, who'd surrendered, rolling his eyes and leaving the room, had come back in. He'd managed to dodge all the flying food. Until this point.

She followed Zack's gaze, and grinned widely when she saw who must have thrown it.

"Logan," Max choked out, hiding back tears of laughter. He looked stricken, and almost panicked now, covered in bits of food.

"Uh.." he faltered for a second, "I guess I must have missed," he shrugged.

Syl burst out laughing, "Good miss, Logan!" she cried out, looking at Zack framed in the door. "Very good miss."

Logan turned beet red for the second time that night, until, of course, a butter tart came flying across at him... from where Zack stood in the doorway. 

It had been an all-out war from there. The eight of them were afraid to emerge from the tiled floor where it would be easy clean up. 

Stepping in to the kitchen at the wrong time soon afterwards, Bling had gotten a face full of whipped cream, and hadn't bothered to wipe it off yet. He stood there, smiling but shaking his head, wondering what these kids had ever done with out each other. 

Then the door rang.

Bling went to run to the washroom.

"Wait, where are you going?" Max asked him. He stopped and turned around.

"I can't answer the door like this!" he exclaimed, looking down at all the whipped cream.

"Well, we can't answer the door like _this_." Logan replied, looking around him.

"Don't let them stand out there," Max almost whined.

Bling rolled his eyes, brushed as much off as he could with his sleeve and went to answer the door.

Max could sense the dog before she even saw it, and tentatively emerging from the kitchen, she saw someone standing in the doorway, a bag slung over his shoulder and a dog at his side. Zane.

"And just _what_ have you been up to Maxie?" he demanded playfully.

Max smiled, looking back in to the kitchen. She began to throw her arms around him but he backed up slightly. "One change of clothes here." he said, keeping his tone almost serious until he finally threw his arms around her.

"Damn, how good it is to see you again." He said, backing up. "So tell me," He commented, eyes falling on those behind her, "You get the family together for dinner, and you waste it on each other? " A grin creased his forehead.

"Damn straight, too much food anyways." Original Cindy said, coming up from behind, her dark curly hair covered in what looked like pudding. "This is _so_ going to take forever to get out of my hair." she said, looking at herself in the hall mirror.

"Hi." Zane replied taken slightly aback by Cindy's casualness, she clearly wasn't an X5 and she clearly wasn't phased by the X5's around her. The guy that had opened the door hadn't been an X5 either. Zane knew that Zack wasn't exactly the one running the show but still, he'd be a fool if he wasn't weary of outside involvement.

Cindy quickly took in his cautious expression, a milder version of a look that Zack had shot her on more than one occasion. Giving Zane a big grin she decided to reassure him. "Hey, Original Cindy's the name. An' guessin' by ya friend 'ere I'd say you're Zane." Cindy wiped a hand on her jeans and then offered it to Zane.

"Um, nice to meet you." Zane replied hesitantly as he shook her offered hand.

"'Lax Zane." Cindy said as she took in his expression. "Only three here dat ain't Chimera, or whateva ya call y'selves and we all cool. Bling here's the med, Logan's the brain boy with da money an' I'm here for moral support for my gurls Max an' Bree."

"Ah, Bree would be.."

"Yup." Max replied.

"And she would be..?" Zane asked. After all, if he was going to fight for her he at least wanted to meet her.

Max's features darkened slightly. Cindy put a comforting arm around her. "We had a li'l' run in with da antichrist this mornin'. Nothin' that Zack an' my gurls couldn't handle. But Bree's out cold thanks to a tranquilizer dart, she should be 'round soon. C'in there's gotta be some food aroun' here that didn't get used in the food fight. An' if there ain't we can always send Money-Bags shoppin', ay Money-Bags?" Cindy said brightly as Logan rolled over. 

"Well actually, somebody's going to have to go shopping soon." Logan replied ignoring Cindy's nickname for him. "Or more than one somebody, no point drawing attention with large purchases." He eyed Griff suspiciously. "Dare I ask how you got that dog through the front door?" He asked Zane.

Zane immediately dropped to the ground and covered Griff's ears. "Don't call her that." He hissed protectively. "Griffy girl here thinks she's human."

"Your d-" Logan muttered in shock. A dog that thought it was human? Now that was something that Logan, cat person as he was, had never heard of.

"Logan." Max warned before Logan could use the 'd' word again.

"She," Logan corrected. "Thinks she's human?"

Zane laughed at the expression on Logan's face. Somehow that perturbed expression just didn't quite work when covered from head to foot in food. "Yeah, it's a delusion we both share. I just carry it out better."

Logan frowned but returned to his original concern. "So, my doormen? I pray they're alive? Even if temporally unconscious."

"Alive and well and slightly richer, disappointed?"

"Relieved actually. Although if people find out I've got a..." Logan paused, looking for a frame of reference other than 'dog'.

"Her name's Griff, short for Griffin." Zane replied.

"If they find out I've got a Griff in the building it could lead to unwanted attention." Just then Griff walked over to Logan. She sniffed him curiously and then began to lick some whipped cream off of his arm.

"Aww, look at that, she likes you Logan." Max said as she knelt down and rubbed between Griff's ears.

"She's only licking me because I'm covered in food." Logan pointed out stoically.

"Nah, she likes you." Zane agreed.

"She only likes me because she's taller than me." Logan complained.

As if offended by Logan's comment Griff gave him one last lick and then started licking cream off of Max's face. It was quite a comical scene re ally. Zane was still on his knees, sitting back and watching the exchange, Max was on her knees beside Logan's chair getting 'cleaned' by Griff who still had one paw resting on Logan's knee. Logan was sitting looking at Griff as if she was about to attack him and Bling and Original Cindy stood at either end of the group looking on in amusement. Syl, Jani and Zack, having come to see what all the commotion was about were standing behind Logan watching.

"Would it make _any_ difference if I were to mention that I'm a cat person?" Logan asked after a long moment.

Zack glanced at Max and then looked at Logan. "Kinda guessed that one." He muttered.

"Oh c'mon Logan, ya not jealous because Max is lettin' Griff lick her are you?" Cindy asked.

Logan blushed slightly and then turned to glare at her.

"Boo behave." Max replied laughing. "Oh, no, don't lick my eyes Griff!"

"Hmm, hang on a minute. You said that Griff's a she, right Zane?"

"Yup."

"And Max is lettin' her lick her. You _sure_ you not playin' on my team Boo?"

Max laughed and shook her head. "You wish." She gently pushed Griff away and pushed herself to her feet. (By leaning on Logan's chair even though she didn't have to.) "Let's get this place cleaned up. " 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


	14. 14

As Bling continued to watch the door,

As Bling continued to watch the door, after being relieved for a minute to clean himself up, the others began the slow process of cleaning up their mess.

However neat they'd had to have been at Manticore, the six X5's still managed to complain every step of the way. Original Cindy attempted to convince Logan to bring in a cleaning crew, but he just regarded her stoically.

With not much energy left, Max didn't complain much, and instead listened to the small bits of conversation between the others. For most of them, less Zack, it had been their first time seeing each other since the escape. And other than Max and Zack, the rest had never even known if the other's were still alive.

Max could see that, even though their reunion was on a battlefield, it still lifted a lot of weight off everyone's shoulders.

Every second she could without being caught, she glanced in on Bree, who hadn't changed positions. With Zane helping out in the kitchen, Griff had come to visit a few times in the past half hour to help 'clean up' her way. Grabbing any available food that was still sitting around, she stayed until Zane reprimanded her and she went, tail between legs, to go sit over by Bree.

It was after the kitchen was cleaned that everyone else began cleaning up. Even with two showers, it didn't happe n very quickly, Logan and Original Cindy grabbing the washrooms the first time, and from then on it whichever X5 could beat their family to it.

Max found herself lying on the floor outside the washroom with Zane on the floor after diving for the door. Syl had beaten them both, but now it was as to who could stay there longer.

With Zack now cleaning up in the guest washroom, Max went to find Logan, who was sitting in front of his computers staring at the screens again.

She left the room, not wanting to interrupt him, and wandered in to the couch where she looked down on Bree on the couch.

She found herself grinning, a small smile was spread across Bree's lips and Griff was licking her face. But what she hadn't been expecting was Bree to open her eyes then.

They focused blearily on Max, "Hi." she whispered, working her throat muscles and swallowing.

Max didn't say anything for a second until the girl began to sit up. 

"No." Max said, "You should probably keep laying down, I don't know what they use in those darts anymore."

Bree mumbled something then groaned.

"What?" Max asked quickly.

Bree opened her eyes once more, looking at Max, who stood worriedly over her. She couldn't help but smile. No one had ever really cared for her as much before. Neither on a friendly or sisterly basis. For her, it had always been that someone was looking out for her, strictly because she either had connections, or knew how to kick some ass.

"I'm fine." Bree said, her voice cracking a bit because lack of use. She sat up as Max grabbed a seat, rubbing Griff between the ears.

"It's just that it's not everyday you wake up to a dog licking your face," she smiled.

Max grinned back, "Her name's Griff, she's Zane's d-baby."

"Who'd he hafta kill to get her in here?" Bree asked teasingly, reaching over and rubbing the dog, who seemed to be in Heaven momentarily.

"So this is Bree." someone said, coming out from the kitchen.

Bree turned around to see a guy, roughly Max's age and with brownish hair, standing behind them.

"Bree, this is Zane, Zane Bree," Max commented, turning.

"Hey" Bree greeted easily, watching his eyes study her in a suspicious fashion. "Would you like to see it?" she asked, somewhat sarcastically.

"What?" he asked.

"The barcode. Did you like, have to see it to believe me or something?"

He didn't reply for a moment, surprised at her question for a second.

"Jus' don't get my girl in a strangle hold a'ight." Original Cindy said, coming from behind, "She doesn't take it very well, ask Zack," she grinned, walking over to Bree. 

"How's my girl?" she asked, taking her hand and squeezing it.

"I'm fine," she replied automatically. "Hungry but good."

"No wonder." Zane said, good naturedly from the doorway.

"Sorry?" Bree asked.

"It looks like you haven't eaten in a week." he shrugged, "We make a pretty good pair, wanna help me raid the kitchen?"

Bree smiled at his sudden trust and openness, glad she didn't have to go through another Zack moment, and got up off the couch. "I'm sure I could handle that," she commented, wa lking around the couch. Griff followed her heals and Original Cindy sat down.

"Told you the girl'd be a'ight," she pointed out.

Max nodded, then thought for a moment, "What did you mean about Zack and Bree?" she asked.

Original Cindy looked caught, "Bree di'n't tell you?"

She shook her head.

"A'ight Boo, Zack over reacted a li'l when he saw Bree standin'in the doorway, but it ain't gotta get all bad 'cause our girl took him down on it, which was when Original Cindy came walkin' in on them."

Max looked slightly pissed off and turned her head away from Original Cindy to hide what she was thinking. Zack didn't trust anyone, probably never really would, but it wasn't like he had to go and strangle every stranger that opened the door.

In her mind's eye, she could picture Bree taking down Zack in one kick if he was unsuspecting, and she couldn't help but smile. At least the guy'd been taught a lesson, right?

"You okay Boo?"

"I'm good" Max replied, turning back and standing up. "I'm gonna go steal that shower from Zane if Syl's out yet, don't tip him off quite yet, a'ight?"

"Whateva you say." she replied.

Max made her way to the washroom, finding Syl just coming out. "The water's getting kind of colder, so you gotta turn it on hot a lot, sorry girl." she shrugged.

"It's okay, this girl's used to having cold showers," she smiled and entered the washroom after grabbing a stack of towels sitting outside the door on the floor.

Logan. He was so considerate of everyone in her family. Even Zack. For now anyways. Her heart warmed, and she didn't seem to care how cold the shower was getting. All she knew was that her family was _finally_ coming together, and it would be a hell of a ride up ahead.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"We're on the road to nowhere, c'mon inside. We're on the road to nowhere, come take that ride...." Krit and Jondy sung together along with the old, pre-pre-pulse tape playing in the stereo. As the song and the tape came to an end Jondy let out a laugh and reached into the back of the jeep for some food and Krit's tape box. 

"Hmm," She muttered as she inspected the load of food that Krit had grabbed from a bakery in the last township they'd been in while she took a bathroom stop. After choosing a relatively safe looking filled roll she turned to the tapes. "Metallica, AC/DC, The Stones, The Who, The Carrs, The Pogues, Alice Cooper, Marilyn Manson, Bloodhound Gang..." She let out a surprised laugh. "Alanis Morrissette? Why Krit, I'd never have guessed."

Krit shrugged. "I like angry music, she's got a few angry songs."

"Mmhmm." Jondy replied around a mouthful of roll, she offered it to Krit and he took a bite. 

"Beethoven's Fifth?" She enquired.

"Dramatic." Krit replied. "Strong and soul stirring." He stole the last of the roll out of her hand. Jondy pretended to pout for a second before grabbing herself another one.

"B52's, Mozart, Haydn?" Jondy continued surprised at the diversity of Krit's collection.

"What music collection is complete without them?" Krit replied with a shrug.

"Shania Twain?" Jondy nearly choked as she read the title.

"The more rocky stuff. She had some good ones." Krit shrugged.

"Riight." Jondy teased. "Bach?"

"Ah, Johann Sebastian, the master of counterpoint." Krit grinned.

"The Cure, Clash, Aqua?!"

"I'm a Barbie Girl, in a Barbie world... You wouldn't want me to be stereotypical now, would you?"

"Meatloaf, hmm. Tchaikovsky?"

"A technical genius, born before his time."

"You really like your music, don't you li'l bro." Jondy grinned.

"Yup, call it an anti-Manticore thing. It's just my own way of saying that Lydecker can kiss my genetically engineered ass. There's plenty of selection there, find something you like and chuck it on."

"Hmm, the best of Reggae, now that's more my thing."

"Oh, poor Jondy-John, can't handle the hard rock huh?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Zane, shower's free." Max called sweetly. 

"Thanks." Zane replied sarcastically as he and Bree emerged from the kitchen.

Max just shrugged and started gathering up the washing. About a minute later there was a surprisingly girlish shriek from the bathroom.

"Max! Why didn't you tell me there was no hot water left?!" Zane yelled.

"Oops." Max replied unsympathetically. "Zane, there's no hot water left."

"How am I s'posed to get grease of in _cold_ water." Zane demanded.

"The same way everybody else does Zane, you _scrub_."

A couple of minutes later loud music could be heard coming from the direction of the elevator. Clash's "Should I stay or should I go?" to be exact. Everybody exchange confused looks and then looked in the direction of a groaning Zack.

"Krit." He answered by way of explanation. "Music always precedes him."

Everybody moved towards the hall outside of Logan's apartment to meet the opening doors. They were however surprised to see two figures in the elevator, both singing along to Krit's tape player.

"...If I go there will be trouble, if I stay it will be double. So you gotta let me know, should I stay or should I go?" Jondy and Krit sang in unison as the song ended and they stepped off of the elevator.

"Definitely stay." Max replied grinning.

"Krit, Jondy." Zack greeted coolly. But his voice clearly questioned their simultaneous arrival.

"Hey Zack." Krit replied lightly.

"Hey Zack." Jondy replied just as coolly, neither was going to give him an answer just yet.

"Jondy?" Max asked, suddenly unsure of herself.

"Maxie?" Jondy replied. A moment later the two sisters were in an unbreakable embrace and both speaking at once.

"Oh god Max.. when I saw you fall through the ice..."

"Jondy I've missed you so much..."

"Looking good li'l sistah..."

"Zack wouldn't tell me anything about how you were..."

"God.. I've wanted to hit Zack sometimes... the way he clams up.."

Both girls had tears in their eyes and smiles on their faces when they finally pulled back.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


	15. 15

Untitled Normal Page

"And get this," Krit continued, leaning forward on the couch, glancing around the room. "Jondy's just standing there, attacking her car, I mean, she's goin'at it like there's no tomorrow. Kicking and hitting, screamin' at it-" he continued.

"Wait a minute!" Jondy protested, "I was _not_ screaming at it, an' maybe I kicked it a few times but-"

"A few times?" Krit exclaimed, laughing out loud, "You'll be lucky if you can use the car for parts now, it has so many dents in it." He laughed.

Max, who was sitting between Jondy and Bree, started laughing, shaking her head at the same time. The amusement seemed to catch on and soon everyone was at least grinning, even Zack.

"Well, I mean who are you going to believe guys." Jondy began, waving her hands, "Him, who listens to Aqua so people don't think of him as stereo-typical, or me. All honest, calm and collected Jondy."

There was silence for a moment until a burst of laughter came from Max's lips. The others followed suite.

Max felt good, sitting with Jondy and talking like family. She'd missed her so much, after telling her to run, after it was Jondy who'd almost dragged her away from Zack so she wouldn't get caught. She looked at her sister now, watching delight fill her features, enjoying the mockery of herself and Krit. It was good to see everyone laugh.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Bree sat beside Max, and although she was technically family, she didn't feel like it. By the looks of it, even Cindy and Logan seemed to be fitting in more at home than herself. Even Zack was laughing and taking part in the occasional discussion.

They'd been sitting there for at least an hour now, just talking about what they'd been up to, and Bree had the feeling it would be something that would go on every moment they were awake until they had to leave again.

She pushed down the vile feeling she got in the pit of her stomach then. Jealousy. She tried to void it out, but the more she looked around at these people, and how so perfectly they fit in to each other's lives, the more she felt left out in the cold.

She'd never escaped with anyone. Couldn't even talk to another X6 and see how they were doing. She missed Haley, and all the things they'd done and talked about together when the lights went out and the two weren't asleep.

The stories, the hopes, their dreams. Plans to escape here one day. Although they didn't know what they'd find, they knew it would be better, even if simply for the fact you could stay in bed as long as you wanted. Not reply to every question with a 'sir, yes sir'.

The world they had dreamed of wasn't quite true, but it had it's ups. And it's downs. But more ups than they'd ever had back In Manticore. And Haley never got to experience it.

She gave a deep sigh, seeing that no one around her seemed to notice. They were involved. Filling each other in. Could she really blame them though?

She snapped back in to the reality, back in to Logan's living room where everyone was. Jondy, Max, Cindy and herself squished in to the long couch, while Logan sat across in his wheelchair, Zack and Krit had taken over the arm chairs and Zane, Jani and Syl lay sprawled on the floor with Griff, rolling over with laughter each time someone cracked a joke.

They were like nine year olds again, really. Except they were normal nine-year-olds. Not a bunch of genetically engineered kids.

She stared at the clock on the wall, aware that it was going on one in the morning. She looked over at Original Cindy, who'd put her head to rest on the arm of the couch and hadn't bothered to move. Asleep.

Dark circles began to rim Logan's eyes and Bling was already off, having left a few hours earlier, after Krit and Jondy's arrival.

The events of the day were taking a toll on her as well, the one who never really slept, although she'd apparently had a couple hours of peaceful drugged sleep. \par \par She couldn't help but wonder where the hell everyone would be sleeping tonight.

As if reading her mind, Logan suddenly spoke up. "Uh, hate to break in all the fun here guys, but for a mere mortal I've had enough of a day, looks like Cindy has too," he commented, glancing at her.

The rest of them glanced over at her, and Bree looked at Griff, who was asleep at her feet. Or rather, on her feet.

"Right." Max said, standing up from the couch, and actually yawning. "I'm dead tired even though I'm wide awake. Figure that one out." she smiled.

Syl rolled over on the floor, pushing her hair from her face. "One question." She said, "Where the heck is everyone sleeping tonight?" She asked.

Max looked down at her, "Race you to the bed." She grinned, without moving. Syl, looking as if she wasn't going to make a move for it, suddenly leapt from the floor, flying down the hall with Max taking chase.

A burst of laughter erupted from the guestroom, waking up Griff. As soon as the dog had lifted her head from Bree's feet, she felt an instant shiver, and wrapped her arms around herself, rubbing them slightly.

Max came out of the room, looking slightly disgruntled, her hair messed up and a wicked smile on her face.

"So who got the bed?" Jondy questioned from the couch, laying her head on the arm of it like Cindy.

"Guess." Syl called from the other room.

"Yea, but she cheated me out of it." Max grinned.

The last few waking moment were spent decidin g on sleep locations. In the end, Cindy and Jondy ended up on the couch, snuggled on their arm rests, Max grabbed one arm chair from Zack, who retired to the floor with a pillow, along with Zane. Bree gladly accepted the second armchair.

"I guess that leaves me and Logan to the Master Bedroom." Jani wiggled her eyebrows at Max, who turned red, "Unless of course, Maxie would like to trade."

"Funny, but I'm doubting Logan would even let me sleep in his room, looks like you're stuck on the floor with them." Max pointed to Zane and Zack. She completely missed the blush that touched Logan's face at the thought of her in his bed.

Jani made a face, "With those dogs?" She teased. "I think I'll shack up with Syl." She laughed.

Hearing this from the other room Syl called down again, "Come get me sis, you better not steal all the blankets or I'll throw you out in the middle of the night." Syl laughed and Jani made her way down the hall as Logan went in to his bedroom. 

"Night my peeps." Max said quietly as the lights went out for the night. 

A chorus of good nights followed. But Bree was already asleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Maybe two or three hours later Bree awoke to the sound of quiet voices. Looking around the room only Max seemed to be missing. Bree quietly left the room and followed the voices to the kitchen. Max was sitting with a slightly older woman at the counter, both drinking tall glasses of milk.

"Did we wake you?" The other woman asked in an almost motherly voice.

"No." Bree replied with equal quietness. "I hardly ever sleep."

The woman nodded and suppressed a yawn. "Just like Max and Jondy. I'm Tinga." She added as she extended an elegant hand.

Bree took it and smiled shyly. "Bree."

"I'm one of the oldest X5's." Tinga said gently. "Maybe the only one that gets away with calling Zack 'little' brother." Bree smiled.

Max suppressed a yawn herself. "My shark DNA seems to be failing me." She muttered.

"Emotional tiredness." Tinga suggested. She grinned. "I dare you to go curl up on Logan's bed."

"Tinga." Max replied surprised at her sister's boldness. They'd been talking about relationships for the last hour and Max had come closer than ever to examining her feelings for Logan while talking to Tinga.

"Go on." Tinga encouraged her. "You can always tell him I stole your spot. Get, I want to get to know baby sis here without any of the others getting in the way."

Max began to shake her head and Bree decided to give her a little push. "You're not chicken now, huh Maxie? I mean you can swing an X5 family reunion but you're to scared to nab a comfy spot on a nice cozy bed? You're not telling me you're afraid of Mr. Eyes Only?"

"I'm not afraid." Max replied indignantly.

"Well get then girl." Tinga half ordered half challenged.

Max shrugged and began to walk confidently towards Logan's door. She hesitated for a moment and then opened the door quietly but with an air of more confidence than she actually possessed. She stood for a moment just looking at him, asleep under the covers. The steady rise and fall of his chest was almost hypnotic. She might have stayed like that, watching him, all night if Bree hadn't whispered "Chicken" in an almost inaudible voice.

The word snapped Max out of her reverie. She quickly but lightly strode into the room. Logan was more to the left of the bed so she made her way around to the right. She sat on the side of the bed and quickly pulled off her boots. She didn't slip under the covers but instead curled up on top of them. Almost, but not quite touching Logan. 

Somehow during the few remaining hours of night Max and Logan came into contact. Maybe Max's feline genes caused her to seek out his warmth? Maybe Logan instinctively pulled her into the circle of his arms? Maybe it was a combination of both? Either way, Zack's frown turned into a scowl when he discovered them all but completely entwined in the early hours of the morning.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


End file.
